• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.26-30
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• 2011

Although the pathophysiologic mechanism is unknown, there has been long-running debate on whether periodic discharges such as periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (PLEDs) and generalized periodic epileptiform discharges are an ictal or interictal EEG pattern. The goal of this review is to give evidence that such periodic discharges on EEG are not ictal phenomenon and just represent underlying acute brain damage. This review includes coma with epileptiform EEG pattern and its prognostic and therapeutic implications. Based on previous reports, rather than taking the view PLEDs represent either an underlying ictal process or an electrographic correlate of neuronal injury, it would be more reasonable that PLEDs are considered as a dynamic pathophysiological state in which unstable neurobiological processes create an ictal-interictal continuum.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.58-63
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• 2017

Studies of interictal epileptiform discharges are essential for improving the diagnosis, classification, and management of epilepsy. In this case series we sought to identify the clinical and neurophysiological significance of bifid spikes, whose pattern bears a strong resemblance to the cardiac M pattern. We hypothesize that, analogous to the cardiac M pattern, the cerebral M pattern is generated by a conduction defect associated with asynchronous spatiotemporal averaging of electrical signals in the cortex, resulting in the signals reaching the scalp with different latencies. Unlike the cardiac M pattern, the pathology underlying the cerebral M pattern is unknown, although congenital CNS anomalies may be a culprit.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2011

Periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (PLEDs) had been debated whether it is ictal or non-ictal phenomenon. As most of PLEDs occur in patients with acute structural lesions, some epileptologists prefer PLEDS as a non-ictal phenomenon, rather an obscure epiphenomenon of etiological diseases. But, almost half of the patients with PLEDs do not have acute structural lesions in the brain and metabolic disorders or old CNS lesions may cause PLEDs and even more, no brain lesion was identified in some patients. There are many data supporting PLEDs as ictal phenomena. Occurrence of PLEDs usually accompanied by decreased mentality and is improved as PLEDs disappeared. Current SPECT study showed marked hyperperfusion in the lesion side of PLEDs, that is striking evidence of PLEDs as ictal phenomena. Also careful review of EEG with PLEDs revealed it is a dynamic process rather than a static state. Despite of these evidences, as PLEDs are an end-stage of animal status epilepticus models, it may be a transition of ictal to interictal state.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.233-238
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• 2001

The routine interictal electroencephalogram(EEG) continues to play an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy. The clinical investigation of brain disease in the last decade has been marked by dramatic advances in functional imaging, magnetic resonance scanning and digitized EEG. Epilepsy is a disorder of electrical hyperirritability of cerebral cortex and the interictal EEG remains the most convenient means available to demonstrate cortical hyperirritability. The sensitivity and specificity of the EEG in the diagnosis of epilepsy have been disputed. In this review, the type of EEG findings in epilepsy are reviewed and the sensitivity and specificity of interictal epileptiform discharge are discussed. And also the role of EEG in various clinical situations are summarized.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.81-83
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• 2006

Periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges(PLEDs) are usually seen in acute and subacute cerebral lesions. Occasionally PLEDs could be observed in persistent structural lesions. We observed PLEDs-plus in a patient with right basal ganglionic hemorrhage, at 10 months and 13 months after the stroke. The patients suffered two seizures 3 months and 5 days before recording of EEG. PLEDs-plus may persist as an interictal abnormal finding and the rhythmic discharge of that may be increased by a seizure.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2009

Background: The intermittent delta activity in electroencephalographies (EEGs) of patients with focal brain lesions has been reported to be a marker of an epileptogenic focus. This study investigated the concordance between the current source distribution (CSD) of the interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) and that of the background delta frequency bands (DFBs) of the scalp EEG. Methods: We collected scalp EEGs of 13 patients with focal epilepsy that contained uniregional IEDs and unilateral delta to theta slow waves. We applied a distributed source model using LORETA$^{(R)}$ to determine the CSD of the peak points of the IEDs and the DFBs of the background activity. Results: The CSDs of the DFBs were ipsilateral to the CSDs of the peak point of the averaged IEDs in ten patients, and bilateral with ipsilateral predominance in three patients. In the cases with an ipsilateral CSD of the DFB, 8 of 10 patients had concordance of the CSD localization between the averaged IED and the DFB. In the cases with bilateral CSD of the DFB, 2 of 3 patients had concordance of the CSD localization between the averaged IED and the DFB. Conclusions: The CSD localization and lateralization appear to be concordant between the IEDs and the DFB of background activity in epileptic patients. Therefore, the CSD of the DFB in EEGs with visually observable slow activities may predict those of IEDs.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.107-118
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• 2007

Background : It is well known that non-rapid eye movement(NREM) sleep activates the occurrence of interictal epileptiform discharges(IED) in many epileptic syndromes. We performed this study to assess the effect of NREM sleep on IED in epileptic patients with organic brain lesions. Materials and Methods : We analyzed awake and sleep electroencephalopathy(EEG) recorded simultaneously after partial sleep deprivation in 50 patients. We calculated the awake and sleep spike index (ASI and SSI, spikes/epoch), and the percentage increase of ASI and SSI during sleep. Results : In the 50 patients, the IEDs were recorded exclusively during the awake state in 1 (2%) patient, and during the sleep state in 13(26%) patients. The SSI was higher in 44 (88%) patients, and the ASI was higher in 5 (10%) patients. The mean ASI and the SSI in patients with organic brain lesions were $0.058{\pm}0.121$ and $0.148{\pm}0.187$, and it was $0.081{\pm}0.150$ and $0.174{\pm}0.226$ in patients without organic brain lesions. There were significant increases in the spike index (P<0.05) during NREM sleep in both groups (n=36), but no significant difference in the percent increase of spike index (P>0.05). Conclusion : The IEDs were activated significantly during NREM sleep both in patients with and without organic brain lesions, but there were no differences in the degree of activation in both groups. The activating effect of NREM sleep was not correlated with clinical factors such as, frequent nocturnal seizures, frequent generalized tonic clonic seizures, type of epilepsy and taking anticonvulsants. We conclude that the routine EEG used to evaluate epileptiform discharges in epileptic patients should include sleep recordings after partial sleep deprivation.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.560-564
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• 2010

Purpose : Electroencephalography (EEG) findings can play a critical role in a variety of decisions, including initiation and withdrawal of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) therapy. Interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) are predictor of recurrent seizures. We investigated IEDs in EEG after AED therapy and related factors in epileptic children. Methods : The subjects were 257 children [151 males and 106 females; age, 6.79 (3.40) years; duration of therapy, 2.48 (1.85) years] diagnosed with epilepsy at the Department of Pediatrics, Pusan National University Hospital between January 2001 and December 2007, who received AEDs for more than 6 months. EEG was performed at the intervals of 6-12 months. We divided patients into 4 groups according to IED detection before and after AEDs treatment. Related clinical factors, including gender, age at the start of treatment, seizure type, cause of seizure, AED frequency, seizure control, duration of AED therapy, and background activity were investigated in the 4 groups. Results : Generalized epilepsy was relatively frequen in patients who did not show IEDs in last follow-up EEG. There were no clinically significant differences according to gender, age at the start of treatment, cause of seizure, AED frequency, seizure control, duration of AED medication, and background activity in the 4 groups ($P$>0.05). Conclusion : IEDs changed after AED treatment in one-third of the patients. Generalized epilepsy is positive factor for negative IEDs in last follow-up EEG.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.97-102
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• 2010

The two new female cases of Angelman syndrome (AS) were described, which diagnosed on the basis of clinical features (dysmorphic facial features, severe mental retardation with absent speech, peculiar jerky movements, ataxic gait and paroxysms of inappropriate laughter) and neurophysiological findings. Failure to detect the deletion of the long arm of chromosome 15 or the absence of epileptic seizure were not considered sufficient to exclude a diagnosis of AS. Feeding problems, developmental delay and early signs of ataxia, especially tremor on handling objects and unstable posture when seated, proved effective as the clinical markers for early diagnosis of AS. Most of the authors agreed about the existence of three main EEG patterns in AS which may appear in isolation or in various combinations in the same patient. The most frequently observed pattern in children has prolonged runs of high amplitude rhythmic 2-3 Hz activity predominantly over the frontal region with superimposed interictal epileptiform discharges. High amplitude rhythmic 4-6 Hz activity, prominent in the occipital regions, with spikes, which can be facilitated by eye closure, is often seen in children under the age of 12 years. The EEG findings are characteristic of AS when seen in the appropriate clinical context and can be helpful to identify AS patients at an early age when genetic counselling may be particularly important.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.388-393
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• 2016

Epilepsy, characterized by enduring the predisposition to generate epileptic seizures, was conceptually defined in 2005 as a disorder of the brain. According to the international league against epilepsy in 2014 that there is a high risk of recurrence within 10 years. The existence of interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) at the Electroencephalography (EEG) is an important risk factor for a possible recurrence of seizures, disproving that the seizures may increase. The purpose of this study was to analyze the correlation between recurrent seizures and epilepsy EEG findings in patients with IEDs, which was carried out to serve as the basis for the EEG to predict the prognosis of patients with epilepsy. This study included 432 adults older than 20 years of age who care for patients with epilepsy at Seoul National University Hospital, between June 2007 and December 2010. The results showed no difference between men and women in the EEG epilepsy disease, but there was a difference between various age groups. Correlation analysis showed a negative correlation between recurrence of seizures and age; it showed a positive correlation between recurrence and IEDs. In addition, age was associated with a predictive power of 10.9% and IEDs showed a predictive power of 15% on recurrent seizures. Therefore, EEG is considered as a very important test in epilepsy diagnosis. Therefore, further studies are necessary on the relationship between seizure recurrence and EEG.