[Effect of epileptic seizures on the heart rate]
Vanda Tóth1, László Hejjel, Zsuzsanna Kalmár
1Pécsi Tudományegyetem, Neurológiai Klinika, Pécs.
Background:
Sudden death appears in 8-17% of epilepsy patients non-responding to antiepileptic therapy. Some studies suggest that the most common cause of death is seizure-related cardiac arrhythmia.
Aim Of Study:
To analyze the alteration of the heart rate six hours before and after the seizures.
Methods:
Eighteen patients suffering from focal epilepsy were examined before epilepsy surgery. Video-EEG-ECG was carried out for 2-10 days, and 32 seizures were registered. Analysis of the heart rate was based on the 5-minute-long epochs of the ECGs taken at the 5-10-15-30th minutes and at the 1-3-6th hours before and after seizures.
Results:
The heart rate increases (from an average of 69 beats/min to 92 beats/min, p<0.001) immediately after seizures, though significantly higher heart rate was observed 3 hours after seizures. There were no patients with severe peri-ictal bradycardia. In one of our patients, ectopic cardiac rhythm occurred after a generalized tonic-clonic seizure.
Conclusions:
We can conclude that the sympathetic activity increases while the parasympathetic activity decreases after seizures. The observed alterations lasted for a long time and predict fatal arrhythmias. These suggest that sudden death in epilepsy can be induced by cardiac arrhythmias connected with epileptic seizures.
Related Concept Videos
Epilepsy and Seizures: Overview
Various factors can trigger epilepsy, including genetic factors, brain damage, metabolic causes, and unknown etiology. Diagnosis of epilepsy involves electroencephalography (EEG), which...
Seizures l: Introduction
Disturbances in Heart Rhythm
Arrhythmias are categorized by their speed, rhythm, and origin. A slow heart...
Seizures: Classification
Seizures are typically classified into two main categories: focal and generalized seizures.
Focal Seizures
Focal seizures originate from specific regions of the brain. These seizures are further sub-classified into two types:
Dysrhythmias III: Characteristics of Dysrhythmias
Dysrhythmias IV: Characteristics of Bradyarrhythmias


