Prevalence of Epileptiform Discharges in Healthy Infants

Abstract

Most studies on epileptiform discharges in young children were performed using analog electroencephalographic (EEG) recording systems and a limited numbers of electrodes that might have a lower detection rate for epileptiform discharges than modern digital recording systems. Knowing the prevalence of epileptiform discharges in healthy children is critical for a valid interpretation of findings in patients with a suspected epileptic disorder. We reviewed EEG recordings of 393 otherwise healthy children aged 12 to 60 months using digital EEG recording with respect to epileptiform discharges. We found epileptiform discharges in 3 children aged 12, 34 and 55 months resulting in a prevalence of epileptiform discharges in our cohort of 0.76% (95% confidence interval 0.0% to 1.62%). The prevalence of epileptiform discharges in children younger than 5 years is by far lower than in older children, and the digital findings are in accordance with previous data of conventional EEG.

Epileptiform Activity in Electroencephalogram of Normal Children

“…Previous studies also demonstrated epileptiform activity in EEG of normal children. [4][5][6][7][8]17 We reported a significantly higher prevalence of ED in children aged 6 to 12 years (3.59%) compared with children aged 13 to 18 years (1.2%) and children aged 1 to 5 years (0.45%). This is in agreement with the results obtained by previous studies.…”

“…This is in agreement with the results obtained by previous studies. 5,7,8 Eeg-Olofsson et al 5 reported a higher prevalence of paroxysmal activity among children aged 6 to 13 years (3.3%) compared with the younger group aged 1 to 5 years (1.18%). Borusiak et al 7 reported a higher prevalence of ED among children aged 6 to 9 years (7.5%) as compared with the older group aged 10 to 13 years (4.9%), without a statistical significance.…”

“…Few studies based on DEEG recording are available. 7,8 Borusiak et al 7 reported EDs in 6.5% of healthy children using DEEG recording. The prevalence reported by Borusiak et al 7 is much higher than the prevalence in our study, although we both used DEEG.…”

“…[4][5][6][7] Data on the exact prevalence of IEDs in healthy children are largely restricted to old studies based on paperrecorded EEG, and only few recent studies based on digital EEG (DEEG) recording are available and included children with head trauma. 7,8 Determining the prevalence of EDs in healthy children is important for the clinical interpretation of EEG findings in children with suspected epileptic seizure. 1…”

Clinical Significance of Epileptiform Activity in Electroencephalogram

“…Лишь у 5,3-8,0 % детей, у которых была обна-ружена эпилептиформная активность на ЭЭГ, в даль-нейшем развились эпилептические приступы [18,32]. В одном из последних исследований ЭЭГ у 393 здоро-вых детей в возрасте 12-60 мес было показано, что рас-пространенность эпилептиформной активности у детей в возрасте до 5 лет составила 0,76 %, что значительно ниже, чем у детей старшего возраста [23].…”