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Quantitative analysis of EEG background activity in patients with rolandic spikes
N I Braga1, G M Manzano, J A Nóbrega
1Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology, Neurology and Neurosurgery Department, UNIFESP-EPM, São Paulo, Brazil. niobraga@uol.com.br
Objective:
The aim was to compare the background activity, through quantitative EEG analysis, of patients with rolandic spikes and normal age-matched controls.
Material And Methods:
Twenty-one channel EEG of 23 children with rolandic spikes and 39 normal children, with ages ranging from 7 to 12 years, were submitted to quantitative analysis (FFT) of discharge-free epochs. Patients and controls were divided in groups according to age (7-9 and 10-12 years old). Delta, theta, alpha and beta frequency ranges were compared between groups for all electrode positions.
Results:
Comparing normals, the 7-9 years old group showed power reduction in the alpha and beta ranges. Comparing patients and normal age-matched groups, the patients showed power increase, at all frequency ranges in the 7-9 years old group and at delta and theta frequency ranges in the 10-12 years old group.
Conclusions:
Our findings agree with recent evidences that these children may differ from normal (besides the eventual occurrence of seizures); but they also suggest that these differences can be related to immaturity and not necessarily related to the epileptiform discharge.