Panayiotopoulos syndrome with coincidental brain lesions.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the clinical and electroencephalographic features of three patients diagnosed with Panayiotopoulos syndrome with different lesions identified by cranial MRI investigation.


METHODS
Our study was based on patients from the Epilepsy Outpatient Clinic of Sişli Etfal Education Hospital in Istanbul, where a prospective study of Panayiotopoulos syndrome was initiated in 1995. Records of our Epilepsy Outpatient Clinic revealed 53 patients with Panayiotopoulos syndrome. Among them were three with cranial lesions identified by MRI.


RESULTS
The onset of the seizures in our patients ranged between five and eight years. The seizures included mainly autonomic symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, pallor, mydriasis, urinary and fecal incontinence, and rarely hypersalivation. Autonomic partial status was detected in one patient. The personal history of our patients revealed head trauma in two and difficult birth history in one patient. Two patients described simple febrile seizures. All patients had occipital spike or spike-wave complexes in their EEGs. The background activity was normal. From the cranial MRI, one patient had a neuroepithelial cyst, the second patient had a right occipital encephalomalasic lesion and the third patient had an arachnoid cyst located in the cisterna magna associated with colpocephaly. Seizure frequency was low in general. All patients except for one received carbamazepine treatment 450-600 mg/day. None of our patients had seizures under antiepileptic treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Children with Panayiotopoulos syndrome may have static MRI brain findings which are likely to be coincidental and do not affect prognosis.
Yalçin
A Destina
AD
Neurology Clinic, Sişli Etfal Education and Research Hospital, Sişli-Istanbul, Turkey. destinayalcin@yahoo.com
Toydemir
Hülya Ertaşoğlu
HE
Celebi
Lale Gündoğdu
LG
Forta
Hulki
H
D016080:Arachnoid Cysts / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology; D001342:Autonomic Nervous System Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000473:pathology*; D017034:Epilepsy, Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D012640:Seizures / Q000473:pathology; D013577:Syndrome