Electroencephalographic findings in children with cerebral palsy: a study of 151 patients.
EEG abnormalities were studied in 151 patients (79 boys, 72 girls age range 0.4-13 years) with cerebral palsy (CP). They all had standardised EEG recordings, which were read by the same electroencephalographer. Eighty-one children had seizures and 70 were seizure-free. The EEG abnormalities in the seizure group included slow waves in 36 patients (generalised asynchronous in 33 and generalised synchronous in 3); amplitude abnormalities in 2 (focal in 1, generalised 1); epileptiform activity (including isolated sharp waves, isolated spikes, and spike-wave and polyspike-wave complexes) was seen in 66 (focal in 12; generalised in 48 and multifocal in 6). Hypsarrythmia was found in 4 and burst suppression in 1. Only 6 recordings were normal giving an overall percentage of abnormality of 92.6%. Of the CP patients without seizures, 28 (40%) showed generalised asynchronous slow waves; epileptiform activity was found in 27 (focal in 2, generalised in 23 and multifocal in 2); 3 subjects showed hypsarrythmia and 24 recordings were normal. The overall percentage of abnormality in this group was 76%. Cerebral palsy in children, regardless of its cause may be associated with generalised focal EEG abnormalities. This may reflect heterogeneity of the neural-generator in the underlying disease process.
Al-Sulaiman
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Department of Neurology, King Fahd University Hospital, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. asulaiman@hospital.kfu.edu.sa
D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012720:Severity of Illness Index