T-wave heterogeneity crescendo in the surface EKG is superior to heart rate acceleration for seizure prediction.

Epilepsy Behav

Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Boston, MA, United States; Harvard Medical School, 99 Brookline Avenue, RN-301, Boston, MA 02215, United States; Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Consortia for Improving Medicine with Innovation & Technology (CIMIT), 125 Nashua St., Suite 324, Boston, MA 02114, United States. Electronic address:

Published: May 2022

We examined whether T-wave heterogeneity (TWH) on the surface electrocardiographic (EKG) could predict epileptic seizure onset. Patients with electroencephalography-confirmed generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) (n = 6) exhibited abnormal elevations in TWH (>80 µV) at baseline (105 ± 20.4 µV), which increased from 30 min prior to seizure without heart rate increases > 2 beats/min until 10 min pre-seizure. Specifically, TWH on 3-lead surface EKG patch recordings increased from 1-hour baseline to 30 min (<0.05), 20 min (p < 0.002), 10 min (p = 0.01), and 1 min (p = 0.01) before seizure onset. At 10 min following GTCS, TWH returned to 110 ± 20.3 µV, similar to baseline (p = 0.54). This pre-ictal TWH warning pattern was not present in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) (n = 3), as TWH did not increase until PNES and returned to baseline within 10 min after PNES. Acute elevations in TWH may predict impending GTCS and may discriminate patients with GTCS from those with behaviorally similar PNES.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yebeh.2022.108670DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

t-wave heterogeneity
8
surface ekg
8
heart rate
8
heterogeneity crescendo
4
crescendo surface
4
ekg superior
4
superior heart
4
rate acceleration
4
acceleration seizure
4
seizure prediction
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!