A clinical and radiological study on seizures after cerebral infarction

Jeun, Shang Shin; Eah, Kyung Yoon

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Seizures after cerebral infarction are uncommon and their mechanisms are not yet elucidated. The aim of this study is to review the clinical features of the patients with cerebral infarction who developed seizures.
METHODS
We retrospectively studied 22 patients who developed seizures after cerebral infarction. We examined the clinical features( onset and type ), EEG and CT findings from patient's clinical recordings and CT. The lesion size shown on CT scan was measured.
RESULTS
The patients comprised 11 men and 11 women with their ages ranging from 46 to 78 ( mean 63.5 ) years. After cerebral infarction, ten patients developed seizures within 2 weeks after the onset, five between 2 weeks and 6 months after the onset, one between 6 months and 1 year and six 1 year after the onset of stroke. CT scans were available in all patients. The location of the cerebral infarction was ; the cortical is 14, subcortical in 2, basal ganglia in 8 and one had multiple infarcts. The size of infarction on CT was measured and twelve patients of 22 seizures after cerebral infarction were smaller than 20 cm2. Focal seizures were the most common seizure type. Eight patients showed focal slowing on EEG.
CONCLUSIONS
In this study, we found the seizures after cerebral infarction are selectively frequent the frontal and temporal cortices and less frequent when the basal ganglia was involved. The seizures were frequent when the cerebral infarction was smaller than 20 cm2 were. We need to follow up the patient with small sized cortical cerebral infarction with a special attention to the occurrence of seizures.