SLEEP - Stimulus-Induced, Sleep-Bound, Focal Seizures: A Case Report

VOLUME 34, ISSUE 12

SHORT NOTE
Stimulus-Induced, Sleep-Bound, Focal Seizures: A Case Report

http://dx.doi.org/10.5665/sleep.1448

Francesca Siclari, MD¹^,³; Lino Nobili, MD, PhD⁶; Giorgio Lo Russo, MD⁶; Alessio Moscato, Phy MSc⁶; Alfred Buck, MD²; Claudio L. Bassetti, MD¹^,⁴; Ramin Khatami, MD¹^,⁵

¹Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland; ²Nuclear medicine, University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland; ³University Hospital Lausanne, Switzerland; ⁴Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland; ⁵Barmelweid Sleep Clinic, Barmelweid, Switzerland; ⁶Epilepsy Surgery Center, Niguarda Hospital Milan, Italy

Table of Contents

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Supplemental Material

Study Objectives:

In nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy (NFLE), seizures occur almost exclusively during NREM sleep. Why precisely these seizures are sleep-bound remains unknown. Studies of patients with nonlesional familial forms of NFLE have suggested the arousal system may play a major role in their pathogenesis. We report the case of a patient with pharmaco-resistant, probably cryptogenic form of non-familial NFLE and strictly sleep-bound seizures that could be elicited by alerting stimuli and were associated with ictal bilateral thalamic and right orbital-insular hyperperfusion on SPECT imaging.

Design:

Case report.

Setting:

University Hospital Zurich.

Patients or Participants:

One patient with pharmaco-resistant epilepsy.

Conclusion:

This case shows that the arousal system plays a fundamental role also in cryptogenic non-familial forms of NFLE.

Citation:

Siclari F; Nobili L; Lo Russo G; Moscato A; Buck A; Bassetti CL; Khatami R. Stimulus-induced, sleep-bound, focal seizures: a case report. SLEEP 2011;34(12):1727-1730.