The frequency of epilepsy in Down syndrome (DS) has been reported in literature varying from 6 to 17%. A typical electroencephalografic (EEG) pattern has not been established for this condition. There is a great variation on EEG abnormalities, and most of them are not associated to behavior alterations or neurological signs. The aim of this study was to establish epidemiological and electroencephalografic parameters in institutionalised patients with clinical diagnosis of DS. We studied 77 individuals of both sexes, age ranging from 0-38 years old. The EEG was performed on all the patients; 20.7% had EEG abnormalities and 31.3% of these were epileptic. The non-epileptic patients presented inespecific EEG abnormalities. Therefore, our data did not allow us to propose a typical EEG pattern for DS.
Down syndrome; epilepsy; electrencephalogram
