EEG Report...Help ????

[MonkeyMom4]

I'm not sure what this means and was wondering if anyone could help.

I won't type it all...too much to type.

Here's the bottom part of the report though.

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IMPRESSION: Borderline EEG:  (what does that mean?)

1. Single episode of questionable diffuse sharp theta.
2. Intermittent alternating hemispheral questionable sharp theta.
3. Intermittent bicentral questionable sharp theta.
4. Single episode of posterior quadrant questionable sharp theta.
5. Single episode of left temporal questionable sharp theta.

Comment: This EEG suggests the possibilty of cortical irrability, although there were no well-organized spike or sharp and slow waveforms seen and no clinical seizures observed. The questionable sharp activity which was only slightly higher in amplitude than the background activity making it difficult to firmly establish an underlying seizure diathesis. Clinical correlation needed.
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Does this make sense to anyone?

Do you think this is why he's now ordering a sleep study?  Do they order sleep studies just b/c your fat?

Always more questions than answers. =D

Thanks to all you can help.

[figuerpa]

These tests are so hard to read. Really wish they would put it in terms that we can understand but then I guess that is what the doctors are for. Has your doctor went over the results with you to clarify what they mean in laymen's terms?


Good luck and keep us informed

Paula

[MonkeyMom4]

Thanks again for the info. That helped some.

They told me that I needed to come in a little sleep deprived and no caffeine..etc.

There was a sleep portion of the test. The tech (very nice lady) told me that I did fall asleep for about 10 minutes.

Here is what the sleep part of the report said: The patient achieved sleep stages I-II. The sleep spindles were moderately organized, synchronous, and symmetric over the convexitites.

umm...what? lol..sounds normal to me though.

Thanks JJ

[supermum_ms]

Hi,

I just sent you a post about keppra a seizure med, anyway fell over this one whilst looking its from science direct but the link is huge so cant put it here with out it going astray, this is an extract that may answer a couple of your q's.

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Sharp transients in the sleep EEG of healthy adults: a possible pitfall in the diagnostic assessment of seizure disorders

This article is not included in your organization's subscription. However, you may be able to access this article under your organization's agreement with Elsevier.

A. M. Beun*, W. van Emde Boas and E. Dekker

Instituut voor Epilepsiebestrijding, ‘Meer en Bosch'/‘De Cruquiushoeve', Achterweg 5, 2103 SW Heemstede, Netherlands

Accepted 21 July 1997. Available online 16 March 1999.

Abstract
The use of sleep EEG recordings is a routine procedure in the diagnostic work up of patients with suspected epilepsy. With respect to the diagnostic significance of paroxysmal EEG phenomena it is of importance to be informed about the incidence of such paroxysms in EEG's of healthy subjects. Several benign paroxysmal EEG phenomena during drowsiness or sleep have been identified (benign epileptiform transients of sleep (BETS), 14 and 6 positive spikes).

Recent studies have shown that other, apparently aspecific, paroxysmal sharp transients may be recorded during drowsiness or sleep in healthy subjects. In order to obtain more data on such paroxysmal EEG phenomena during sleep, a qualitative and semi quantitative analysis was performed on full night sleep recordings from 60 carefully selected healthy volunteers. Only 4 recordings were completely without the studied phenomena, all others showed some suspicious paroxysmal transients and some rare yet true specific epileptiform discharges were recorded in 8 subjects (13%), predominantly during transient periods of light non-REM sleep in the first two sleep cycles.

The presence of some sharp transients during drowsiness or light sleep thus should be considered as a non-specific and non-pathological finding. Moreover these findings indicate the limited diagnostic specificity of the presence of a few epileptiform discharges during sleep, especially in patients with an ambiguous clinical history of epilepsy.

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It sounds like its just routine to do a sleep study, when there is something but no huge waving red flags. It makes me wonder if you got sleep or drousy during the EEG, if you did then those minor ripples could just be non-pathological anyway. sorry not really giving you any clear answers, i do think the sleep study regardless would be a good thing, even if all it does is rule out one more thing.

Hang in there kiddo!

Cheers........JJ