Seizure Flashcards
______ (3) can mimic seizures (must r/o).
- Syncope
- Cardiac disturbances
- Psychological (PNES)
Examples of provoked seizures
- Head trauma
- Drugs alcohol intoxication
- Metabolic disturbances
- Stroke
- Fever
(provoked seizures are not considered epilepsy)
Seizure lifetime prevalence
- 9% (1/3 are benign febrile seizures)
- 30-70% recurrence rate over three years after a single seizure
- 80/1000,000
Define epilepsy
- Disease of the brain that predisposes a person to recurrent unprovoked seizures
- Must have two or more unprovoked seizures
(TQ)
Non-epileptic seizures
- Cardiovascular
- Drug or substance
- Metabolic
- Infection
- Fever
- Sleep disorder
- Psychogenic
Seizure precipitants
- Cocaine
- High or low (more common) blood sugar
- Low calcium, sodium or magnesium
- Stimulant (cocaine)
- Sedative withdrawal
- Severe sleep deprivation
Third most common neurological disease
Epilepsy
Epilepsy prevalence and incidence
Seizure classification
Common causes of seizure in newborns
- Malformation
- Lack of oxygen during birth
- Low levels of blood glucose, calcium, or magnesium
- Inborn error of metabolism
- Intracranial hemorrhage
- Maternal drug use
Common cause of seizures in infants and children
- Fever
- Brain tumor
- Infection
Common causes seizures in children and adults
- Congenital conditions (Angelman’s, Tuberous sclerosis)
- Genetic factors
- Progressive brain disease
- Head trauma
Common causes of seizures in seniors
- Stroke
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Trauma
Epilepsy pathophysiology
- Synchronous interaction of large populations of neurons that intermittently discharging abnormal patterns
- High voltage, long duration depolarization with superimposed high-frequency burst of action potentials
- Extracellular current flow results in inter-ictal EEG “spike and sharp wave”
Normal waves on EEG (4)
Normal EEG
EEG abnormalities
- Background abnormalities
- Transient abnormalities
- Under all these can be a focal lateral or general
Background abnormalities
Significant abnormalities and or degree of slowing inappropriate for clinical state
Transient abnormalities associated with seizures
- Spike waves
- Sharp waves
- Spike - wave complex
EEG-GTC Seizure
How are focal onset seizures subdivided?
aware or unaware
General seizures are subclassified as
Motor or non motor