Usefulness of Electroencephalography after Partial Sleep Deprivation for the Diagnosis of Epilepsy in Children

Jung, Sehwa; Kim, Sung Hwan

Abstract

PURPOSE
The benefit of electroencephalography after sleep deprivation (SDEEG) in the diagnosis of epilepsy is controversial, and it is difficult to apply SDEEG to all pediatric patients in the clinical setting. This study is to figure out the usefulness of SDEEG for the detection of epileptiform discharges (EDs).
METHODS
Medical records were reviewed retrospectively. Routine electroencephalography (REEG) was performed in 150 patients, and SDEEG was taken in 69 patients among the study population(n=219). The detection rates of EDs were compared between two groups, and also compared according to the presence of sleep in each group.
RESULTS
The detection rate of EDs was higher in SDEEG group than in REEG group [n=69 (59.4%) vs n=150 (43.3%), P=0.03). Whereas there was no significant differences of the detection rate of EDs between REEG with and without sleep recording groups (43.8% vs 38.5%, P=0.777), there was significantly higher detection rate of EDs in SDEEG with sleep than SDEEG without sleep recording groups [n=63 (61.9%) vs n=6 (33.3%), P=0.022]. The detection rate of EDs was not significantly different between each group with and without sleep recording in overall EEGs (49.5% vs 36.8%, P=0.342). However, in overall EEGs with sleep recording, the detection rate of EDs was statistically significantly higher in SDEEG group than REEG group [n=63 (61.9%) vs n=137 (43.8%), P=0.022].
CONCLUSION
SDEEG revealed higher detection rate of EDs than REEG. It is not because of the effect of sleep recording, but of sleep deprivation itself. SDEEG is useful tool to apply for the diagnosis of epilepsy in daily clinical practice in children.