title: Interplay between interictal spikes and behavioral seizures in young, but not aged pilocarpine-treated epileptic rats.
abstract: Interictal spike activity is commonly observed in the EEG of patients with epilepsy, but the causal interrelationship between interictal spikes and behavioral seizures is poorly understood. We performed long-term video-EEG monitoring of 16 epileptic rats after pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus and five control animals. To quantify the interplay between periods of spikes and seizures, we calculated the time spent with spikes as well as the time spent with seizures for each animal. Within a given subject, we found a significant correlation between these two measures in 7/11 young epileptic rats (<400 days); this correlation was positive in six cases and negative in one. By contrast, none of five aged pilocarpine-treated animals exhibited significant correlation coefficients between spike periods and seizures (>600 days, P<0.05). Instead, aged epileptic rats showed a prominent predominance for either spike periods or seizures, which might explain the absence of significant correlation in this population. We found that there is a significant interplay between interictal periods of spikes and behavioral seizures in young epileptic animals, but this association is absent during aging.
authors.affiliation: Oscar Langendorff Institute of Physiology, University of Rostock, Germany; Dept. of Anesthesiology and Intensive Medicine, University of Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: rika.bajorat@uni-rostock.de.
authors.forename: Rika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bajorat
authors.affiliation: Oscar Langendorff Institute of Physiology, University of Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: do.goe@gmx.de.
authors.forename: Doreen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Goerss
authors.affiliation: Oscar Langendorff Institute of Physiology, University of Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: linda.brenndoerfer@charite.de.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brenndörfer
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: lars.schwabe@uni-rostock.de.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schwabe
authors.affiliation: Oscar Langendorff Institute of Physiology, University of Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: ruediger.koehling@uni-rostock.de.
authors.forename: Rüdiger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Köhling
authors.affiliation: Oscar Langendorff Institute of Physiology, University of Rostock, Germany. Electronic address: timo.kirschstein@uni-rostock.de.
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kirschstein
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000139:chemically induced*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D010862:Pilocarpine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012640:Seizures / Q000139:chemically induced*; D013226:Status Epilepticus / Q000139:chemically induced; D013997:Time Factors; D014741:Video Recording
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants; D010862:Pilocarpine
keywords: Interictal spikes; Long-term video-EEG; Pilocarpine