Ictal video-EEG recording of three partial seizures in a patient with the benign infantile convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis.

PURPOSE: In infants, benign convulsions can be triggered by febrile illness or mild diarrhea such as Rotavirus gastroenteritis. The triggering mechanism of these convulsions is still unknown. In spite of several reports concerning clinical features, the ictal EEG recordings were rarely analyzed by a video-EEG monitoring system. To reveal a clue for the triggering mechanism of these convulsions, we analyzed the correlation of clinical manifestations and the EEG discharges during the ictal events and compared with previous reports.

METHODS

The ictal EEG of a cluster of three afebrile convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis was recorded by an EEG closed-circuit TV (EEG-CCTV) monitoring system in a 6-month-old healthy female infant.

RESULTS

All seizures began as complex partial seizures (CPSs), which exhibited a motionless stare with or without leftward deviation of both eyes, and evolved to secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures (SGTCSs) for approximately 90 s. Each of three ictal discharges began from the right occipital, right centroparietotemporal, and left occipital regions, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Although initiating sites of ictal discharges of benign infantile convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis (BICE) were previously reported to be variable among patients, these results indicated that those differ among seizures even in a same infant.