[PS9-2A-1 ] Significance of state-of-the-art wide-band EEG analysis in pediatric epileptic encephalopathy
Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a long-standing clinical tool that is indispensable in the diagnosis and management of epilepsy. Although neurologists who review traditional EEG traces may feel as if no novel scientific information remains in EEG, digital EEG recording allows wide-band analysis involving very slow and fast activity, especially the high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) that escaped recognition during the paper EEG era.
Wide-band EEG is very important in childhood epilepsy, particularly epileptic encephalopathy (EE), because of the abundant fast (80–150 Hz) oscillations (FOs) in the scalp EEG of various types of pediatric EE, including West syndrome (WS). The stormy generation of FOs during interictal hypsarrhythmia may indicate epileptogenicity in WS.
EE with continuous spike-and-wave during sleep (CSWS) is another important type of pediatric EE, which shares the common finding of the detection of scalp FOs with idiopathic partial epilepsy of childhood. We speculate that the magnitude of pathological FOs might be at least partly related to the degree of neurocognitive disturbances, because physiological high-frequency activity is important in higher brain functions, and this activity might be interfered by pathological HFOs/FOs.
Future studies on HFOs/FOs are expected to shed light on the pathophysiology of pediatric EE, and result in the development of improved therapeutic strategy.
Wide-band EEG is very important in childhood epilepsy, particularly epileptic encephalopathy (EE), because of the abundant fast (80–150 Hz) oscillations (FOs) in the scalp EEG of various types of pediatric EE, including West syndrome (WS). The stormy generation of FOs during interictal hypsarrhythmia may indicate epileptogenicity in WS.
EE with continuous spike-and-wave during sleep (CSWS) is another important type of pediatric EE, which shares the common finding of the detection of scalp FOs with idiopathic partial epilepsy of childhood. We speculate that the magnitude of pathological FOs might be at least partly related to the degree of neurocognitive disturbances, because physiological high-frequency activity is important in higher brain functions, and this activity might be interfered by pathological HFOs/FOs.
Future studies on HFOs/FOs are expected to shed light on the pathophysiology of pediatric EE, and result in the development of improved therapeutic strategy.