ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical characteristics of epileptic patients with synchronous occipital and frontopolar spikes phenomenon. METHODS: The clinical data,EEG features of patients with synchronous occipital and frontopolar spikes phenomenon were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Totally 34 male and 21 female patients had synchronous occipital and frontopolar spikes. Ages at the time of recording the synchronous occipital and frontopolar spikes phenomenon ranged from 2 years 6 months to 14 years with the median age of 6 years 6 months. In the total 55 patients,12 patients had contralateral synchronous discharges,12 patients had ipsilateral synchronous,17 patients had bilateral synchronous discharges,7 patients had bilateral synchronous discharges tending to contralateral synchronously,and 7 patients had bilateral synchronous discharges tending to ipsilateral synchronously. Occipital preceded frontopolar discharges in 42 patients. Frontopolar preceded occipital discharges in 3 patients. The phase difference between the occipital and frontopolar spikes could not be distinguished in 10 patients. Based on the etiology and diagnoses,there was Panayiotopoulos syndrome in 33 patients,epilepsy with structural abnormality in 13 patients,secondary epilepsy due to immune encephalitis in 1 patient,epilepsy accompanied by inborn error of metabolism in 2 patients and epilepsy with unknown etiology in 6 patients. CONCLUSION: The synchronous occipital and frontopolar spikes phenomenon usually appears during childhood or develops from other discharge patterns in infancy stage. The synchronous occipital and frontopolar spikes phenomenon can be ipsilateral synchronous or contralateral synchronous discharges. The occipital spikes preceded frontopolar spikes in most patients. The synchronous occipital and frontopolar spikes phenomenon is mostly found in Panayiotopoulos syndrome,but it is also found in epilepsy with different etiologies.