engleski

EMERGENT EEG AND DIAGNOSTIC YIELD

We wanted to determine whether an acute loss of consciousness, mental status change or related symptoms correlate with presence of epileptiform abnormalities on urgent EEG. We analyzed 228 consecutive patients admitted to the ER during the past 12 months and referred to the urgent EEG evaluation. All patients had either a brief loss of consciousness, or acute brain disorder, with a clinical diagnosis of epilepsy, syncope, head trauma, headache, TIA or vertigo. Statistical analysis was performed using Spearman’s rho test for group comparisons and multivariate regression analysis. Mean age of patients was 48±20 years. Th e frequency of referring clinical diagnoses was: 44.7% (102 out of 228) was epilepsy, 15.8% (36/228) was TIA, 15.4% (35/228) syncope, 11% (25/228) headache, 7.9% (18/228) vertigo and 5.3% (12/228) was an acute head trauma. 14.9% (34/228) had epileptiform abnormalities on the EEG and 9.2% (21/228) had focal slowing. Majority of them, 26% (21/81 patients), had a clinical diagnosis of epilepsy. Th ere was a signifi cant correlation between clinical diagnosis of epilepsy and epileptiform EEG, with Spearman’s rho 0.13 (p< 0.04). A multivariate regression analysis showed that there was no predictive value in clinical diagnosis of epilepsy and epileptiform EEG, with β= 1.483, p= 0.16. In conclusion, epilepsy was the commonest clinical diagnosis for patients referred to an urgent EEG. Th ere was a signifi cant correlation between the diagnosis and specifi c EEG abnormalities, however, the diagnosis of epilepsy failed to predict epileptiform activity on the EEG. Our data suggest that urgent EEG has a high yield in patients with epilepsy.

EEG; epilepsy; epileptiform abnormalities

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