Abstracts

RATIONALE: The recognition of mesial temporal sclerosis syndrome (MTS) has been due, in part, to the contribution of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There are probably different subgroups of patient who show this syndrome.The aim of the study was to compare patients with MTS and diurnal seizures with patients with MTS and nocturnal seizures.
METHODS: We selected, retrospectively, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy diagnosed on the basis of clinical and EEG data and hippocampal sclerosis on the MRI. They were subdivided into two groups: A) Diurnal, with seizures during the day and B) Nocturnal, with seizures during sleep over 75% more frequent than diurnal ones. We analyzed age, sex, familial history of epilepsy (HF), febrile convulsions (FC), time of evolution (TE), seizure frequency (SF), use of monotherapy or politherapy and response to treatment.
RESULTS: We included 31 patients. Group A: 24 patients, age average 38.1[plusminus]10.7, 14 women, 7 (29.1%) with HF, 8 (33.3%) with FC, TE 27.7[plusminus]13.2, SF 3.9[plusminus]3.0, 1 (4.2%) on monotherapy, 17 (70.8%) refractory. Group B: 7 patients, age average 41[plusminus]7.3, 2 women, 1 (14.2%) with HF, 2 (28.5%) with FC, TE 18[plusminus]11.4, SF 1.2[plusminus]1.1, 3 (42.8%) on monotherapy, 3 (42.8%) were refractory. The significant variables were TE (p= 0.04) and SF (p= 0.002) lower in group B, and use of monotherapy (p= 0.04), higher in group B.
CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that patients with MTS and nocturnal prevalence of seizures, may have a better prognosis of their epilepsy.