Nose wiping: an unrecognized automatism in absence seizures.
Nose wiping is a well-known postictal automatism in complex partial seizures, considered very important for lateralization. We report a 24-year-old woman selected from 32 patients with video-EEG investigations of absence seizures. The patient, with normal examination and imaging findings, had typical absence seizures from the age of 5 years, which were controlled with either ethosuximide or valproate and worsened by carbamazepine. In two of her recorded typical absence seizures associated with generalized 3 Hz symmetric spike-wave discharges, she wiped her nose as an automatism in the ictal and post-ictal period. Our case showed that nose wiping could be associated with generalized seizures, in contrast to other recent reports.
University of Istanbul, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Turkey.
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Baykan
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Gürses
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Gökyiğit
D000293:Adolescent; D001332:Automatism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004832:Epilepsy, Absence / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D013826:Theta Rhythm