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.
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.
Authors: J El Helou; V Navarro; C Depienne; E Fedirko; E LeGuern; M Baulac; I An-Gourfinkel; C Adam Journal: Clin Neurophysiol Date: 2008-08-31 Impact factor: 3.708
Authors: Lawrence J Hirsch; Trudy Pang; Jan Claassen; Craig Chang; Karine Abou Khaled; John Wittman; Ronald G Emerson Journal: Epilepsia Date: 2008-01-02 Impact factor: 5.864
Authors: I E Scheffer; K P Bhatia; I Lopes-Cendes; D R Fish; C D Marsden; F Andermann; E Andermann; R Desbiens; F Cendes; J I Manson Journal: Lancet Date: 1994-02-26 Impact factor: 79.321