[Diagnostic value of 24-hour simultaneous EEG and ECG monitoring of patients with heart diseases and atypical consciousness disorders].

In 24 patients with diagnostically not clear, short, recurrent episodes of consciousness disturbances and heart diseases and/or a history of arrhythmia simultaneous 24-hour recording was done of eeg and ecg. In the differential diagnosis epilepsy was considered, especially since in most cases routine eeg records demonstrated slight episodic changes. During 24-hour recording in 8 cases typical episodes of consciousness disturbances developed but in none of them these episodes were associated with arrhythmia which ruled out their cardiogenic origin. In 2 cases EEG recording served for establishing the diagnosis of partial complex seizures, 2 patients had hyperventilation syncope, one had TIA, in the remaining 3 cases absence of eeg and ecg changes during these episodes and coexistence of anxiety neurosis suggested functional origin. So the combined 24-hour eeg+ecg recording made possible establishing of diagnosis in 1/3 of these patients, enabling adequate treatment to be instituted.