ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the significance of sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of childhood epilepsy.Methods:The clinical data of 56 children with epilepsy diagnosed in The Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Huainan from February 2020 to February 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. The relationship between the positive rate of epileptiform discharge under sleep EEG monitoring and its location and sleep phase was analyzed.Results:Of the 56 children, 36 (64%) children had normal results of routine awake EEG monitoring, and 20 (36%) children had abnormal results. Among the 56 children, 9 (16%) children had normal sleep and 47 (84%) had abnormal sleep. The difference in EEG monitoring results between the awake and asleep states was statistically significant ( χ2 = 27.08, P < 0.001). Among abnormal EEG in 47 patients, paroxysmal abnormality (epileptiform discharge) was found in 44 patients and non-specific abnormality was found in 3 patients. Among the 44 children with epileptic discharges, 5 (11%) had epileptic discharges during wakefulness, 11 (25%) children had epileptic discharges during a sleepless period, and 28 (64%) had epileptic discharges during a slight sleep period. EEG epileptiform discharges occurred in the central temporal region in 9 (21%) patients, temporal region in 8 (18%) patients, parieto-occipital region in 1 (2%) patient, frontal region in 5 (11%) patients, and the frontotemporal region in 6 (14%) patients. Generalized discharges were found in 14 (32%) patients, and generalized hypsarrhythmia was found in 1 (2%) patient. Conclusion:Children with clinically highly suspected epilepsy should be reexamined by sleep EEG if the routine awake EEG, monitoring results are normal, to reduce the rates of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis in children with epilepsy.
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the characteristics of electroencephalograms ( EEGs ) of patients with childhood absence epilepsy ( CAE ) .Methods EEG of 46 patients with CAE were analyzed .Results Of 46 patients,there were 44 cases (95.6%) with guided bilateral symmetry 3Hz spike-and-wave.16 cases were character-ized by multiple spike-and-wave on the 3Hz spike and slow wave;and the centrotemporal spikes was found in 1 case. Additionally,the 3Hzδactivity in occipital region has been traced in 34 cases of these 46 patients.Conclusion In general,the EEGs of CAE patients have typical characteristics ,and few of them showed atypical manifestation ,which must be verified by clinical attention .