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.
Baykan
B
B
University of Istanbul, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology, Turkey.
Gürses
C
C
Gökyiğit
A
A
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