Are there any clinical and EEG features associated with the occurrence of executive dysfunctions in patients with...

The aim of the study was to determine the possible relationship between different clinical and EEG features and executive functions in patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME), i.e. to determine if sex, age, duration, absences, clinical asymmetric seizures, asymmetry or focality in epileptiform activity in EEG, EEG slow activity and familiar occurrences are associated with frontal dysfunction in JME patients. 28 patients (17 females, 11 males), mean age--22 y. were enrolled in the study. Executive functions were evaluated with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Crosstabulation of certain characteristics have been used. The mean age at the beginning of epilepsy for the whole group was 13.5 y. and duration 8.5 y. All patients had myoclonic jerks, 28.6% of patients described unilateral predominance. Absences were registered in 42.9% patients. Bilateral spike or polyspikes/wave complexes were registered in 89.2% of patients, asymmetry of generalized discharges or focality in at least one EEG in 53.6% of patients, with anterior slow activity in 25% of them. Familiar occurrence was found in 42.9%. Of 28 patients, 14 had normal findings on WCST, while the other half of the patients did very poorly, achieving only 1-3 categories. Statistical analysis showed that only the female sex had p-value of 0.05, while other clinical and EEG features were not significantly associated with the occurrence of frontal impairment. Aside from female sex, no other clinical or EEG parameters were associated with the occurrence of executive dysfunction. But considering the relatively small sample size, our study may have been underpowered to detect subtle association and in our opinion, the current results must be replicated with a larger group of subjects to confirm the findings.