[Prognosis of benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes: clinical utility of objective diagnostic criteria].

Introduction: Studies about childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (CECTS), most of them retrospective, include patients with highly heterogeneous features.

Aim: To investigate the prognostic value of objective diagnostic criteria for CECTS applied at six month of evolution of epilepsy.

Patients And Methods: All patients with one or more unprovoked epileptic seizures (n = 827) were prospectively included. We investigated prognosis and clinical features of five groups of patients defined in accordance with the presence of centrotemporal spikes (CTS) and the following signs: speech arrest or dysarthria; hemifacial tonic or clonic contractions; and prominent sialorrhea. Group A (two or three signs and CTS), group B (one sign and CTS), group C (no sign and CTS), group D (two or three signs without CTS), group E (tonic-clonic generalized seizures and CTS).

Results: 52, 12, 12, 22 and 8 cases were classified respectively into groups A, B, C, D and E. Patients of the five groups presented a similar semiology but differences in the probability of attaining a 3-years remission without antiepileptic treatment were observed: group A (98%), group B (92%), group C (90%), group D (77%), group E (100%). The difference between groups A and D was statistically significant.

Conclusion: Cases of group A could be considered as well-defined cases of CECTS; cases of groups B, C and E, as probable cases of CECTS, and cases of group D must be excluded from the diagnosis.