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Benign electroencephalography pattern mimicking temporal lobe epilepsy
  1. Ahmed Abbas1,
  2. Elfatih Suliman Ahmed1,
  3. Noushad Shereef Mytheen1,2
  1. 1Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Birmingham City Hospital, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
  2. 2Department of Neurology, Birmingham City Hospital, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Birmingham, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ahmed Abbas, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Birmingham City Hospital, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Birmingham, B18 7QH, UK; ahmed.abbas4{at}nhs.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/practneurol-2018-001907

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    A young woman with depression was referred for evaluation of refractory stereotypical seizures. These started 12 months before, manifesting as a brief feeling of panic and strange abdominal sensation (‘fluttering’), followed by an apparently minimally responsive ‘dreamy’ state lasting around 20 min.

    The initial suspicion of temporal lobe epilepsy was strengthened by a subsequently requested sleep-deprived electroencephalography (EEG), reported elsewhere as showing ‘frequent runs of sharp activity over the temporal regions supporting a focal seizure disorder’. She subsequently tried three different antiepileptic medications (carbamazepine, then levetiracetam, then levetiracetam and sodium valproate) with no improvement and then increasingly frequent events. MR scan of brain was normal.

    Ambulatory EEG captured several stereotypical clinical attacks during which the EEG remained normal. However, as she became drowsy during the recording, there were repeated runs of prominent …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors have participated in writing the manuscript.

    • Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Detail has been removed from this case description/these case descriptions to ensure anonymity. The editors and reviewers have seen the detailed information available and are satisfied that the information backs up the case the authors are making.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed. This paper was reviewed by Nick Kane, Bristol, UK.