How Often Excitation Precipitates Seizure? Relative Difference of Frequency and Significance in Different Types of Epilepsy

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder, which presents with recurrent, unprovoked seizures. Seizure occurs spontaneously usually, but there may be association of various triggers. These triggers may act as seizure precipitating factors (SPFs). Objective: To find out the frequency of excitation as a SPF and its relationship to different types of epileptic patients attending Neurology and Medicine outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary care hospital in Bangladesh. Methods: This was a cross sectional study carried out in specialized epilepsy weekly outdoor clinic of Neurology and Medicine outpatient department (OPD) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital from January 2008 to July 2011. Epilepsy syndromes were broadly classified into four categories using the classification system of International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) namely, generalized epilepsy (GE), localization related epilepsy (LRE), symptomatic and unclassified. Each patient was evaluated and classified by consultant neurologist. All participants were interviewed through a predesigned close ended questionnaire to identify frequency of excitation as a SPF. Result: Among all the patients 71.5% were male, with most common age group at the time of interview was 11-20 years (36.8%). About 62% could identify at least one precipitator. Excitation (25.2%) was the most common SPF reported by patients followed by emotional stress in 17.7%. Excitation was found to be significantly associated with generalized epilepsy (p&lt;.000). Conclusion: Most of the patients can identify their seizure precipitant. Excitation showed a strong association with generalized epilepsy. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jom.v13i2.12748 J Medicine 2012; 13 : 143-146</jats:p

Major co-morbidities in stroke patients: a hospital based study in Bangladesh

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jdmc.v21i1.13233 J. Dhaka Med. Coll. 2012; 21(1): 16-22</jats:p

Study of EEG Findings in Patients Referred from Psychiatrists

EEG is not so commonly used in patients attending psychiatry  department. It is predominantly required to rule out any  organic cause behind the behavioral changes. Purpose of  this study was to assess the referred cases from psychiatry  department and determine the clinical factors associated with  an abnormal EEG in patients with psychiatric problem. We  retrospectively reviewed and analyzed the data of all the cases  referred to EEG lab. of Dept. of Neurology, Dhaka Medical  College Hospital from psychiatrist. A total of 50 patients from  July 2009 to January 2011 were selected. From the EEG  register following information were noted eg. age, sex,  socioeconomic status, habitat, rural or urban, clinical  features, associated features, probable clinical diagnosis and  EEG findings. The results showed that most of the patients  belonged to age group 11-20years, comprising 46 % (n-23),  66% (n-33) were female. Though the total rate of abnormal  EEG in psychiatry patients are low (n-20). 44% of the patients  having seizure as the presenting complaint had the largest  number of EEG abnormality (n-16), p value &lt;.001. Patients  with primary psychiatric disorders did not have any  epileptiform activity (n-22). Where as most of the patients (n-  27) who were undiagnosed at the time of referral had the  largest number of EEG abnormality (n-19), p value&lt;.002.  So any patient presenting to psychiatry department with  seizure disorder or any patient with diagnostic confusion  should be evaluated with EEG. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbcps.v30i1.11363 J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2012; 30: 24-29</jats:p