New to forum, need help in interpreting my EEG

[zxgfap]

I am a 66yo male and had my first seizure after spending all-night at a casino without food or liquids and passed out in the early morning hours. Here is my 24 hour ambulatory report said:

1. There was some left temproal theta slow wave activity with rare intermittent sharp waves in this region without clinical accompaniment.

2. In sleep, spindles were seen symmetrically. No typical events were described in diary.

3. IMP Abnormal study consistent with neuronal dysfunction over the left temporal region and the sharp waves seen can be associated with seizures of partial onset. No electrographic seizure activity was seen.

What does all this mean?

Thanks,
William

[Endless]

Hi, William,

I don't know much about reading eeg's, but I did want to say WELCOME!

[Nakamova]

Hi William, welcome!

I'm sorry to hear about your seizure. It may well have been brought on by any or all of these common seizure triggers: fatigue, low blood sugar, and dehydration. I hope this means it's a one-time thing, and that you haven't had any additional symptoms.

Your best bet is to ask the neurologist for a detailed interpretation of your EEG. This is because there are so many variables that need to be taken into account with EEGs -- where and when particular waveforms occur, their shape and distribution, their frequencies, the background surrounding them, whether the patient is awake or asleep... And there can be both false positives and false negatives.

But for what it's worth, here's my (very amateur) take on the report:

The theta waves mentioned in #1 normally are slow waves seen in sleep at any age. In awake adults, these waves can be abnormal if they occur in excess. The spikes might can be caused by artifacts in the EEG process -- but the fact that they were only on one side of the brain makes them somewhat likely to be abnormal. But there was no "clinical accompaniment" -- i.e. you weren't showing any symptoms at the time, so it's open to interpretation.

In #2, symmetrical sleep spindles are absolutely normal. They show up in many stages of sleep.

As for #3, sharp waves usually are abnormal, but there are certain settings where they can be normal too. In this case, the fact they were primarily on one side might suggest that you might be vulnerable to partial seizures (these usually are unusual sensations, rather than the full grand mal kind of seizure). "No electrographic seizure activity" means you weren't having a seizure right at that moment during the EEG.

So there might be something going on -- you might have a lowered seizure threshold, associated with simple partial seizures originating from the left temporal lobe... but you might not.

Best,
Nakamova

[zxgfap]

Thanks for the reply, Nakamova,
I do plan to visit my Neurologist to get his interpretation of my EEG.

The 20-40 Min. office EEG had the following findings which prompted the 24 hr. EEG. If you or any other members can give me their amatuer interpretation of this one as well as the 24 hr one I would appreciate it:

This 16 channel recording was performed to evaluate for focal or epileptiform activity. The background consists of well formed, reactive 8 to 8.5 Hz rhythm which was reactive.

There were occasional left temporal theta transients noted.
Photic an Hv were non-activating. IMP mildly abnormal due to: Mild
asynchronous left temporal slow wave transients.

Clinical interpretation: This study reveals evidence of mild left temporal abnormality, non specific as to cause. No definite epileptiform features were seen.
Serial recordings to assess for interval change may be of benefit.

Thanks,
William