[Info] Common Cardiac Disorders That are Often Misdiagnosed as Epilepsy

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Zoe

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Greetings,

There are a number of heart conditions that are very often misdiagnosed and treated as epilepsy. Two of the more common ones at Long QT Syndrome and numerous types of syncope. I nearly died several times from convulsive syncope while sleeping. My heart stopped during the convulsion and I vomitted into my lungs when it started again causing aspiration pneumonia. The specialists believed the nocturnal convulsions were due to poorly controlled seizures.


Nearly dying from these nocturnal convulsive syncope spells several times is what sent me to the front of the waiting list for the “life or death” epilepsy surgery. Of course it failed to stop the seizures. However, my nocturnal convulsive seizures stopped altogether when I got off my seizure meds.

I will go to my grave believing my “uncontrolled” seizures and snycope were the result of being over drugged on anticonvulsants. They were drug induced by specialists who were truly ignorant of anticonvulsant side effects and took no responsibility if their actions caused more harm than help to the patient.

On reflection, I remain convinced the worsening of my condition over a period of years until the seizures became life threatening, were drug induced. Better seizure management, not drugs or surgery, would have stopped them altogether.


In my book, it just makes sense for any child or adult diagnosed with or being evaluated for epilepsy, to rule out these very common heart conditions which may have seizures or other symptoms that look like seizures.

Especially when someone continues to have seizures while on anticonvulsants, it may be life saving to evaluate for cardiac disorders.







Syncope resistant to anticonvulsant therapy.
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com...sed-epilepsy-25910/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../2...
National Center for Biotechnology Information
by BN Shah - ‎2011 - ‎Related articles
Syncope resistant to anticonvulsant therapy. Shah BN(1), Foster W, Yue A, Corbett S. Author information: (1)Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit, Royal ..

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22034718


Syncope In A Patient With Temporal Lobe Epilepsy ...
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com...y.com/.../syncope-patient-temporal-lobe-epile...


Epilepsy.com
A seizure was recorded during video-polygraphic monitoring with the patient lying down. At the beginning of the seizure, the EEG showed low amplitude fast ...

http://www.epilepsy.com/information...-cases/syncope-patient-temporal-lobe-epilepsy





Vasovagal Syncope Treated as Epilepsy for 16 Years
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...


National Center for Biotechnology Information
by AA Asadi-Pooya - ‎2011 - ‎Related articles
The differentiation of vasovagal syncope and epileptic seizure is sometimes ....Syncope is a condition that is most commonly misdiagnosed as epilepsy.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3559122/

Misdiagnosis of epilepsy: many seizure-like attacks have a ...
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com...iencedirect.com/science/.../S0735109700007002


ScienceDirect
by A Zaidi - ‎2000 - ‎Cited by 301 - ‎Related articles
OBJECTIVESWe sought to investigate the value of cardiovascular tests to diagnose convulsive syncope in patients with apparent treatment-resistant epilepsy.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109700007002




Epilepsy or Syncope? An Analysis of 55 Consecutive Patients
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/726465



Medscape
Vasovagal syncope was found in 22 (40%) patients, life-threatening arrhythmias in ... The consequences of a misdiagnosis of epilepsy are many and include ...

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/726465


Syncope: Practice Essentials, Background, Pathophysiology
emedicine.medscape.com/article/811669-overview



Medscape
Dec 7, 2015 - Syncope is defined as a transient, self-limited loss of consciousness with an inability to maintain postural tone that is followed by spontaneous ...

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/811669-overview

What Is Long QT Syndrome? - NHLBI, NIH
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/.../qt


National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Sep 21, 2011 - Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a disorder of the heart's electrical activity. It can cause sudden, uncontrollable, dangerous arrhythmias (ah-RITH-me-ahs) in response to exercise or stress. Arrhythmias are problems with the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/qt



Long-QT Still Misdiagnosed as Epilepsy, Leading to ...
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/706859



Medscape
Jul 31, 2009 - Epilepsy Misdiagnosis Still a Key Reason Behind Long Delays to ... New Zealand) — Children and young adults with long-QT syndrome may ..
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/706859


Misdiagnosis of long QT syndrome as epilepsy at first ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...


National Center for Biotechnology Information
by JM MacCormick - ‎2009 - ‎Cited by 69 - ‎Related articles
Ann Emerg Med. 2009 Jul;54(1):26-32. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2009.01.031. Epub 2009 Mar 12. Misdiagnosis of long QT syndrome as epilepsy at first .

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19282063


Epilepsy Misdiagnosed as Long QT Syndrome: It Can Go ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chd.12104/pdf
John Wiley & Sons
by BA Medford - ‎2014 - ‎Cited by 1 - ‎Related articles
Key Words. Long QT Syndrome; LQTS; Long QT Syndrome Type 2; Epilepsy;Seizure; Electroencephalogram ... lepsy who for years was misdiagnosed with and.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chd.12104/abstract
 
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