Hi Everyone. New and looking for some guidance for my 82 year old mom

[jetnj1961]

Hi Everyone,

My 82 yr old mom with Alzheimers that has lived with me for the past 4 years started displaying signs of seizures within the past year. We expressed this to her doctors and on her hospital visits but no one seemed to listen until last week when she was seen at a new hospital.

The findings are confusing to me and I'm hoping that someone can help explain them in terms that I can understand. I have tried to read a good bit by searching on the web but can't find anything that links all of the terminology together.

Findings: The EEG was performed with the patient awak and drowsy. The background activity consists of a irregular .6-7 Hz - 15 uv activity that attenuates with eye opening. Anteriorly, 25-35 Hz, 5-15 uv activity is observed with superimposed upon muscle and eye blink artifacts. The most salient feature of the tracing are rare episodes of an F7-T3 sharp wave activity and rare episode of T3-T5 spike and wave activity. During drowsiness the tracing becomes irregular and slows to 5-7 Hz increased beta activity. Hyperventalation was omitted. Photic stimulation demonstrates no paroxysmal discharges. EKG demonstrates normal sinus rhythm.

Any help or guidance that members can provide would be greatly appreciated as I was unable to get a clear answer from the doctor before she was discharged yesterday.

Kind Regards

Jeff

 

[Endless]

Jeff,

Some of our technically adept members will chime in here about the eeg.

In the meantime, Welcome! You are a wonderful son to have your mother living with you. It's not easy. That is such a compassionate thing to do.

And kudos to you for knowing what a seizure looks like. Most people don't. Well done. And well done on being persistant on getting her the right diagnosis and care. Also not easy.

Is your mom on medication now? What kind/dose?

 

[Nakamova]

Hi Jeff, welcome!

What kind of seizures has you mom been having? How often with what symptoms? If you can keep a journal, that can help get the doctors' attention, and give them a better sense of what's going on.

I wish I could help you with the EEG, but your best bet is to contact the hospital's neurologist to get a more definitive explanation. EEG information needs to be interpreted in context -- not just if there are spikes and/or waves, but how often they occur, what area of the brain they originate in, and whether the patient is awake or drowsy at the particular moment. Some EEG info can just be background noise (artifacts), and some can be open to more than one interpretation. So it's important to get a professional take rather than speculation.

Alzheimers can be a cause of seizures, so your docs should be paying attention to your mother's symptoms. The usual treatment is anti-seizure medication, but since AEDs can affect cognitive issues the docs would need to proceed with care. In addition, the elderly usually require much lower doses, and care needs to be taken that there are no conflicts with existing meds and the your mother isn't being over-medicated.

I hope you are able to get your mother some help. Please keep us posted.

Best,
Nakamova