Stimulus-induced, sleep-bound, focal seizures: a case report
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Published on: June 25, 2016
Francesca Siclari1, Lino Nobili, Giorgio Lo Russo
1Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland.
Study Objectives:
In nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy (NFLE), seizures occur almost exclusively during NREM sleep. Why precisely these seizures are sleep-bound remains unknown. Studies of patients with nonlesional familial forms of NFLE have suggested the arousal system may play a major role in their pathogenesis. We report the case of a patient with pharmaco-resistant, probably cryptogenic form of non-familial NFLE and strictly sleep-bound seizures that could be elicited by alerting stimuli and were associated with ictal bilateral thalamic and right orbital-insular hyperperfusion on SPECT imaging.
Design:
Case report.
Setting:
University Hospital Zurich.
Patients Or Participants:
One patient with pharmaco-resistant epilepsy.
Conclusion:
This case shows that the arousal system plays a fundamental role also in cryptogenic non-familial forms of NFLE.
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