OBJECTIVE: To compare the presence of "sleep occipital positive transient spikes" (SOPTS) in the electroencephalogram (EEG) of epileptic patients without sleep deprivation (SD) to those with SD, as an activation method. METHOD: The author analyzed 40 EEG of 20 epileptic patients, aging from 12 to 43 years, 60%, males. Those patients were attempted at the Clinics Hospital of Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, from 1995 to 2000. Every patient included in this study had epilepsy clinically diagnosed and all EEG without abnormalities. Each subject was submitted to one EEG without SD and another, after 36 hours of SD. The register of these EEG was performed within an interval of 48 h, obeying to the standard protocol. The effect of sleep deprivation was evaluated by the presence of the graphic element SOPTS during NREM sleep stage. RESULTS: On the EEG without SD, the SOPTS were present in 6 (30%) patients on stage I and in 1 (5%) other, on both stages I and II NREM. After SD, SOPTS were absent for only one patient, but were identified on stage I NREM for 25% of patients and, on stages I and II NREM, for 75% of cases. CONCLUSION: The increase on the frequency of SOPTS after sleep deprivation seems to indicate the existence of excitatory neurotransmitters, what may significantly contribute to the investigation of cerebral excitability.
sleep deprivation; EEG; sleep occipital positive transient spikes
