OBJECTIVES To evaluate the EEG changes during seizures in children with drug resistant focal epilepsy who demonstrate hypoperfusion at the "seizure focus" interictally, but no perfusion change during the seizure. METHODS Ictal EEG findings of six children with focal epilepsy who demonstrated hypoperfusion on rCBF SPECT after an interictal injection of (99)Tc(m) HMPAO concordant with the seizu...

PURPOSE Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with bilateral ictal involvement (bitemporal epilepsy, BTLE) is an intriguing form of TLE whose characteristics need to be carefully identified as BTLE patients are not good surgical candidates. The purpose of this study was to define the anatomo-electro-clinical features differentiating BTLE from unilateral TLE (UTLE). METHODS Forty-eight BTLE patients un...

Ictal-related cardiac asystole is supposed to be a risk factor for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). We retrospectively analyzed the occurrence of ictal asystole in 2003 epilepsy patients undergoing long-term video EEG/ECG monitoring from 1/1999 to 6/2010 at the Freiburg epilepsy centre. Seven patients had cardiac arrest with a duration of at least 3s; 6 ictal, one postictal. In all ...

Epileptic seizures can cause a variety of temporary changes in perception and behavior. In the human EEG they are reflected by multiple ictal patterns, where epileptic seizures typically become apparent as characteristic, usually rhythmic signals, often coinciding with or even preceding the earliest observable changes in behavior. Their detection at the earliest observable onset of ictal patter...

Background: Epilepsy is a brain disorder that changes the basin geometry of the oscillation of trajectories in the phase space. Nevertheless, recent studies on epilepsy often used the statistical characteristics of this space to diagnose epileptic seizures. Objectives: We evaluated changes caused by the seizures on the mentioned basin by focusing on phase space sorted by Poincaré sections. Ma...

PURPOSE Autonomic seizures in temporal lobe epilepsies associated with "cold shivers and goose bumps" as a principal ictal sign or aura have only rarely been studied. METHODS Sixteen patients with autonomic auras [cold shivers or cold sweats (n=11), goose bumps (n=4), one patient showed both ictal signs] were analyzed. RESULTS Lesions were detected in 12 patients. The etiology was heterogen...

A major challenge in planning and performing resective surgery in drug-resistant epilepsy is the accurate identification of the epileptogenic zone. Currently, intracranial EEG is considered to be the most reliable preresective functional localisation method. Our objective is to non-invasively localise the epileptogenic zone using simultaneous high-density EEG source imaging (ESI) and fMRI of in...

Objective: A quantitative analysis of scalp electric ®elds in patients suffering from pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy was performed in order to study the development of rhythmic ictal activities over time. Methods: A method that calculates phase-corrected voltage maps in the frequency domain (FFT-approximation) was applied to ictal multichannel recordings in 10 epileptic patients. The ...

INTRODUCTION Seizures are symptoms associated with abnormal electrical activity in electroencephalogram (EEG). The present study was designed to determine the effect of absence seizure on heart rate (HR) changes in electrocardiogram (ECG). METHODS HR alterations were recorded simultaneous with spike and wave discharges (SWD) by EEG in 6 WAG/Rij rats as a well characterized and validated genet...

Two patients in whom consciousness and memory were retained during bilateral clonic or tonic-clonic seizures are reported on, and three patients reported on previously are reviewed. Ictal semiology differed from myoclonic and supplementary motor seizures, which are other seizure types characterised by bilateral motor movements and retained awareness. In the two new patients ictal pain was a pro...