Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Electrocardiographic accompaniments of temporal lobe epileptic seizures

Blumhardt, L. D., Smith, P. E. M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4250-2562 and Owen, Lynne 1986. Electrocardiographic accompaniments of temporal lobe epileptic seizures. Lancet 327 (8489) , pp. 1051-1056. 10.1016/S0140-6736(86)91328-0

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

74 spontaneous seizures in 26 patients with a clinical diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy (complex partial seizures) were recorded by simultaneous ambulatory cassette monitoring of the electrocardiogram and the electroencephalogram (EEG). In 24 patients (92%) seizures were associated with an increased heart rate. The maximum heart rates exceeded 120 beats/min in 67% of seizures, 140 beats/min in 30%, and 160 beats/min in 12%. The acceleration of heart rate was greater in patients under than in those over 25 years old (p<0·01) and in those not treated with than in those on anticonvulsant drugs (p<0·01). Ictal cardiac arrhythmias occurred in 42% of the patients and the commonest was an irregular series of abrupt rate changes which occurred towards the end of the EEG seizure discharge. Asymptomatic (clinically silent) arrhythmias occurred no more frequently in the patients than in age and sex matched healthy subjects. These secondary autonomic effects of epilepsy may lead to diagnostic errors if their cerebral origins are not suspected. They seem to be reduced in severity by anticonvulsant drugs (ACD) and they may account for sudden unexplained deaths in epileptics.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Medicine
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0140-6736
Last Modified: 09 Nov 2022 10:18
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/139025

Citation Data

Cited 238 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item