Image of the moment
Misdiagnosis of epilepsy due to errors in EEG interpretation
Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, Departments of Neurology & Neurosurgery, University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, Florida, USA; sbenbadi@health.usf.edu
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
A 33-year-old woman was evaluated for episodes of generalised weakness, fatigue, diffuse pain, and dizziness. Her EEG revealed "temporal sharp waves" (fig 1
, arrow). Despite the history, she was diagnosed with seizures and started on antiepileptic drugs.
Figure 1 These sharp transients arise from an ongoing rhythm of the same frequency. They do not clearly stand out or disrupt the background activity. Contrast this with the sharp waves shown in figure 3
| |||||||||
.
A 46-year-old woman was evaluated for a single episode of loss of consciousness after stepping out of her car. She recalled feeling unwell and weak, and then came to 1–2 minutes later with people around her. Witnesses said that she slumped down to the ground and was out and limp with no abnormal movements. EEG showed left temporal sharp waves "with phase reversals" (fig 2, arrow). Again despite the history, a diagnosis of seizures was made and
Relevant Article
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Practical Neurology 2007 7: 279.
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
