Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T21:11:56.381Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 22 - Focal Dysfunction (Lesions)

from Part III - Specific Conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2021

Neville M. Jadeja
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Get access

Summary

The EEG is poorly sensitive and specific to detect lesions compared to neuroimaging; its practical use is to determine the functional consequence of the lesion. Focal dysfunction (physiologic) may occur without an associated neuroimaging abnormality. Postictal states and hypoperfusion are examples of physiologic dysfunction; these are often reversible (disappear on repeat testing). Focal dysfunction causes disruption of the background architecture (wakefulness and sleep), asymmetric responses on activation procedures, and focal slowing. Severity of the focal dysfunction may be estimated based on the abundance of slowing, attenuation of amplitude, loss of reactivity, and increase of slower frequencies. Sporadic, intermittent, or fluctuating focal slowing that is reactive to external stimulation or endogenous state changes (such as arousal) may indicate physiological dysfunction. Focal intermittent rhythmic (monomorphic) delta activity such as Lateralized rhythmic delta activity (LRDA) specifically indicates epileptogenicity. It should be treated like an epileptic discharge despite the lack of a sharpness. Look for epileptic discharges that may accompany focal slowing. Focal slowing may occur in isolation, bilaterally, or in the setting of diffuse cerebral dysfunction.

Type
Chapter
Information
How to Read an EEG , pp. 214 - 218
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Noh, BH, Berg, AT, Nordli, DR Jr. Concordance of MRI lesions and EEG focal slowing in children with nonsyndromic epilepsy. Epilepsia. 2013 Mar;54(3):455–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Britton, JW, Frey, LC, Hopp, JL, et al. Electroencephalography (EEG): an introductory text and atlas of normal and abnormal findings in adults, children, and infants. American Epilepsy Society, Chicago; 2016.Google ScholarPubMed
Gaspard, N, Manganas, L, Rampal, N, Petroff, OA, Hirsch, LJ. Similarity of lateralized rhythmic delta activity to periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges in critically ill patients. JAMA Neurology. 2013 Oct 1;70(10):1288–95.Google ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×