title: Idiopathic childhood occipital epilepsy of Gastaut: report of 12 patients.
abstract: This study sought to present clinical and outcome data of patients with idiopathic childhood occipital epilepsy of Gastaut, to validate previously reported characteristics of this epilepsy. The study group was comprised of 12 affected children (three boys and nine girls), with a median age of onset at 10.3 years. Common ictal manifestations included elementary visual hallucinations (75.0%), blindness or blurring of vision (50.0%), headache (50.0%), and secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures (58.3%). Interictal electroencephalography revealed occipital spike-wave paroxysms reactive to eye closure and opening in all patients, accompanied by spike-wave activity in the extra-occipital areas in four (33.3%), and by generalized spike-wave discharges in two (16.7%). One patient exhibited the onset of occipital lobe seizures 1 year after manifesting absence epilepsy. Seizure remission occurred in 81.8% of cases, in half of which medication was discontinued by late adolescence. This study confirmed the previously delineated electroclinical features of epilepsy syndrome, with additional aspects including the frequent association of generalized tonic-clonic seizures and atypical evolution from childhood absence epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Ehime Rehabilitation Center for Children, Toon-Shi, Ehime Prefecture 791-0212, Japan. hirwaka@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wakamoto
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagao
authors.forename: Mitsumasa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fukuda
authors.forename: Shohei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Motoki
authors.forename: Hiromitsu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohmori
authors.forename: Eiichi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ishii
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001766:Blindness / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D004832:Epilepsy, Absence / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000209:etiology; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult