ABSTRACT
Piloerection is an involuntary erection of body hairs that usually has physiological correlates such as cold or a strong emotional experience. Piloerection may also be a rare manifestation of seizure.Here, we report a case of 54-year-old man who experienced pilomotor seizures from temporal lobe epilepsy. The patient presented with sudden piloerection and no loss of consciousness many times a day. Magnetic resonance imagingof the brain showed threelesions in the right hemisphere, with the largest lesion in the right temporal lobe. A video-EEG showed an ictal discharge in the delta range with right temporal onset. Digital subtraction angiography excluded arteriovenous malformation. The lesion in the right temporal lobe was resected. Immunohistochemistry confirmed a cerebral cavernous malformation. There was no further seizure. A review of the published literature revealed that ictal piloerection as a lone manifestation is rare. Most cases of pilomotor seizure originate in the temporal lobe. Close to four fifth of the cases has a structural lesion. EEG was able to confirm the diagnosis of ictal piloerection in the majority of cases.
ABSTRACT
Pilomotor seizures have been reported frequently with temporal lesions or sometimes with ictal discharges from temporal area. The stimulation on cingulate gyrus also induced the piloerection in animals. We present a 27-year-old man with pilomotor seizures originating from the right frontal lobe. The subtracted ictal 99mTc-ECD SPECT of the patient showed hyperperfusion mainly on the right cingulate gyrus. Electrocorticography demonstrated the epileptogenic focus in the anterior part of the right cingulate gyrus. After resection of the focus, the patient has been free from seizures.