Title: A Study on Clinical Profile and Etiology of Partial Seizures in Adults at Tertiary Care Centre

Authors: Chaudhry Aditya, Mittal Manish, Sonali, Mittal Garima

 DOI:  https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v5i5.191

Abstract

Objective: To Study the Clinical Profile and Etiology of Partial seizures in Adults at Tertiary care centre.

Method: In this Descriptive, cross sectional study, a total of 135 patients were selected over 1 year. All patients with partial seizures in adulthood were included. Patient below the age of 18 years, seizure type other than partial seizures, Pseudo seizures and patients with history of seizure before the age of 18 years were excluded. Data was entered and analyzed on SPSS software.

Results: Maximum number of cases were due to Neurocysticercosis (NCC) (36.30%). Maximum showed simple partial seizure (45.19%), followed by complex partial seizure (33.33%) and complex partial seizures with secondary generalization (21.48%). Of the 135 cases of partial seizures 100 (74.07%) were males and 35 (25.93%) were females with male to female ratio of 2.8:1. Maximum cases were in the age group of 18 -30 years (males = 20.74% and females = 31.85%). Common symptoms of patient during partial seizures were frothing from mouth (60%), headache (52.59%), aura (51.85%) and uprolling of eye balls (43.73%).Symptoms of patients in postictal phase were headache (62.22%), post ictal confusion (55.56%) and focal deficit (26.67%). Family history was present in 6.67%.Cases of trauma (2.22%) were diagnosed on non contrast computed tomography (NCCT)  head. 7.78% of NCC were picked up on NCCT head. Infection (0.74%), mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) (0.74%), posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) (0.74%), tumor (3%) were all diagnosed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).Electroencephalogram (EEG) was done in 69 (51.11%) cases and 49.28% were abnormal.

Conclusion: NCC still account for a significant number of cases. Males are more prone to partial seizures in our region with more episodes seen in younger age. Every case of partial seizures must be evaluated with EEG and radiological scan – either MRI brain, CECT brain or NCCT brain.

Key Words- Simple partial seizure (SPS), Complex partial seizure (CPS), Neurocysticercosis (NCC), Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE), Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES), Cerebral calcified CT lesion (CCCTL).

References

1.      Thussu A, Arora A, Prabhakar S, Lal V, et al. Acute symptomatic seizures due to single CT lesions: how long to treat with antiepileptic drugs? Neurol India. 2002;50:141-4.

2.      Gulati PP, Kothan SS, Wadhwa P. J Trop Med Hyg. 1991;3:131-4.

3.      Allen CMC, Lueck CJ, Dennis M. Neurological disease. In: Colledge NR, Walker BR, Ralston SH editors. Davidson’s Principles and practice of Medicine. 21st ed. Elsevier; 2010. p.1176.

4.      Niedermeyer E, Lopes da Silva F. Electroencephalography. Basic Principles, Clinical Applications, and Related Fields. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 1999.

5.      Kuzniecky RI, Knowlton RC. Neuroimaging of epilepsy. Semin Neurol. 2002;22(3).

6.      William HT, Ronald PL. The Epilepsies. In: Bradley WG, Daroff RB, Fenichel JM, Jankovic J, editors. Neurology in Clinical Practice. 5th ed. Buttterworth Heinemann: Elsevier; 2005. p.1955.

7.      Mani A, Ramesh CK, Ahuja Gk. Cysticercosis presenting as epilepsy. Neurol India. 1974;22:30.

8.      Wani MA, Banerji AK, Tandon PN, Bhargava S. Neurocysticercosis: Some common presentations. Neurol India. 1981;29:58-63.

9.      Sakamoto AC, Bustamante VCT, Garzon E, Takayanagui OM, et al. Cysticercosis and Epilepsy; The Epilepsies: Etiologies and Prevention: chapter 33:275-82.

10.  Murthy JMK, Yangala R. Acute symptomatic seizures-incidence and etiology spectrum. Seizure. 1999;8:162-5.

11.  Murthy JM, Yangala R. Etiological spectrum of symptomatic localization related epilepsies: A study from South India. J NeurolSci. 1998;158:65-70.

12.  Panagariya A, Surekha RK, Sharma B, et al. Clinical profile of epilepsy in a tertiary care centre of North – West India. J Indian Med Assoc. 2011; 109:14-8.

13.  Zielenski JJ. Epidemiology. In: Laidlaw J, RichensA, editors. A Text book of epilepsy. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone; 1982:16-33.

14.  Singhvi JP, Sawhney IM, Lal V. Profile of intractable epilepsy in a tertiary referral centre. Neurol India. 2000; 48:351-6.

15.  Rwiza HT, Kilonzo GP, Haule JP, Matuja WB, et al. Prevalence and incidence of epilepsy in Ulanga, a rural Tanzanian district: a community-based study. Epilepsia. 1992; 33:1051-6.

16.  Hencey DC, Mac Donald BK. Socio economic variation in the incidence of epilepsy prospective community based study in east England. Brit Med J. 2002; 325:1013-6.

17.  Annegers JF, Hauser WA, Lee JRJ, Rocca W. Incidence of acute symptomatic seizures in Rochester, Minnesota, 1935–1984. Epilepsia.1995;36:327-33.

18.  Chopra JS, Benerjee AK. Primary intracranial sinovenous occlusion in youth and pregnancy. In: Toole JF (editor). Handbook of Clinical Neurology.54th ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier 1989 p 425-52(vol 10)

19.  Das RR, Jain S, Maheshwari MC. Neurocysticercosis: an Analysis of 206 cases from an Indian hospital. Ann IndAcad Neurol. 2001:4:95-8.

20.  Joseph N, Kumar GS, Nellyanil M. Pattern of seizure cases in tertiary care hospital in Karnataka state of India. Ann Indian Acad Neurol. 2013;16:347-51.

21.  Das K, Banerjee M, Mondal GP, Devi LG, et al. Evaluation of socioeconomic factors causing discontinuation of epilepsy treatment resulting in seizure recurrence: A study in an urban epilepsy clinic in India. Seizure.2007;16:6017.

22.  Hamed SA, Abdellah MM, ElMelegy N. Blood levels of trace elements, electrolytes, and oxidative stress/ antioxidant systems in epileptic patients. J Pharmacol Sci. 2004;96:46573.

23.  Hussein A, Eltahir A, Yasin F, Malkaldar M, et al. Clinical presentation of epilepsy among adult Sudanese epileptic patients. Sudan J Med Sci. 2007;2:213.

24.  McGohan JP, Dubin AB, Hill RP. The evaluation of seizure disorders by computerised tomography. J Neurosurg. 1979;50:328-32.

Corresponding Author

Chaudhry Aditya

Senior Resident, Department of Medicine,

Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences, Swami Rama Himalayan University,

Dehradun-248140, Uttarakhand, India