PURPOSE Ictal piloerection is an infrequent seizure semiology that is commonly overlooked as an ictal epileptic manifestation. Piloerection is considered to be principally caused by temporal lobe activity although frontal and hypothalamic seizure origins have been reported. The described etiology has shown a wide variety of structural causes such as mesial temporal sclerosis, tumors, posttrauma...

Despite the recent advances in the molecular diagnosis of congenital abnormalities, the initial identification and the decision to refer a patient for further molecular analysis and expensive genetic tests still relies frequently on clinical and radiological criteria. The radiological identification of syndromes, dwarfs and dysplasias is a difficult task, because there are so many findings to c...

PURPOSE To describe repetitive movements of the right arm possibly originating from the ipsilateral SMA area in two drug-resistant epileptic patients. METHODS Two epileptic patients (one female, one male, 35 and 36 years old, respectively) were submitted to pre-surgical evaluation including history, neurological examination, long-term video-EEG monitoring, interictal and ictal SPET, MRI and f...

PURPOSE We studied the extent to which the widely used diagnostic tests contribute to the decision whether or not to perform temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) surgery in The Netherlands. METHODS This nation-wide, retrospective study included 201 consecutive patients referred for TLE surgery screening. The individual and combined contribution of nine index tests to the consensus decision to perform...

We tried to investigate the incidence and the clinical profile of intractable epilepsy with hippocampal atrophy and ictal onset zones located in areas other than the hippocampus (extra-medial-temporal epilepsy; EMTE). We included patients who had hippocampal atrophy confirmed by MRI but with extra-medial-temporal ictal onset zones as verified by invasive intracranial electrodes or video-EEG mon...

Changes in facial expression in frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) have been described in the literature [1,2]. However, this discrete feature of ictal semiology is often missed because of more striking events such as hypermotor or bizarre behaviors. One such facial feature, characterized by a turned-down mouth, is traditionally described in French as the “chapeau de gendarme,” referring to the shape ...

Paroxysmal visual manifestations may represent epileptic seizures arising from the occipital lobe. In coeliac disease (CD) bilateral occipital calcifications and seizure semiology consistent with an occipital origin have been described, primarily in Mediterranean countries. By reporting three adult patients from an Australian outpatient clinic with visual disturbances, occipital cerebral calcif...

PURPOSE Cardiac asystole is known to cause clinical manifestations mimicking seizures. The recognition of this uncommon phenomenon is important to expedite appropriate clinical intervention and avoid unnecessary morbidity as well as potential mortality. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed video-electroencephalographic (EEG) records from January 2008 to December 2013 for relevant cases. RESU...

INTRODUCTION Apneic episodes have not previously been described in children with 1p36 deletion syndrome with seizures. Having encountered one such patient, we reviewed our experience of breathing difficulties in this syndrome, with particular attention to evidence of ictal apnea. We describe four children with 1p36 deletion syndrome, seizures and apneic episodes. METHOD Retrospective analysis...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) encompasses 10-20% of the cases of intractable epilepsy in pediatric patients. Mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) can still be encountered in adolescent patients, but is rare in children under 5 years of age. In this paper we report on the surgical outcome of a series of TLE patients ranging in age from 1 to 18 years at the time of operation. P...