IMAGES IN NEUROLOGY

 

Panayiotopoulos syndrome and continuous spike-wave during slow sleep

 

Síndrome de Panayiotopoulos y punta-onda continua durante el sueño lento

 

 

Antonio Díaz-Negrillo

Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Infanta Elena Hospital, Madrid, Spain

Correspondence

 

 

A 6-year-old girl suddenly developed a loss of conciousness episode with head deviation to the left, generalized hypertonia, and clonic movements when waking up. Then, she presented vomit and bladder sphincter incontinence. Therefore, the Panayiotopoulos syndrome was suspected. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was normal. The electroencephalography (EEG) performed after 48 hours of the episode revealed spike-wave paroxysms in parieto-occipital regions of the left hemisphere (Fig 1). During non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, the EEG showed epileptiform activity of continuous spike-wave greater than 85% (Fig 2).

 

 

 

 

The Panayiotopoulos syndrome can occur in very rare cases with atypical clinical and EEG findings, being the latter central in determining the patient's prognosis¹.

 

References

1. Caraballo R, Astorino F, Cersósimo R, Soprano AM, Fejerman N. Atypical evolution in childhood epilepsy with occipital paroxysms. Epileptic Disord 2001;3:57-62.         [ Links ]

 

 

Correspondence:
Antonio Díaz Negrillo
Unidad de Neurofisiología Clínica
Avenida Reyes Católicos 21
28340 Valdemoro - Madrid
E-mail: antoniodnegrillo@yahoo.esw

Received 13 December 2011
Accepted 23 December 2011

 

 

Conflict of interest: There is no conflict of interest to declare.