Stroke-related seizures in patients with a partial anterior circulation syndrome.

BACKGROUND

Partial anterior circulation syndrome (PACS), due to cerebral infarction, is the most common stroke presentation of patients with seizures. This study investigates the characteristics of such patients according to their seizure onset time.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The characteristics of 151 patients with a PACS and seizures were compared to 310 without seizures. The seizure groups were classified as those of early- (EO), of late- (LO) and of very late-onset (VLO) and those due to recurrent infarcts (RI).

RESULTS

Temporal lobe infarction is the main risk factor for developing seizures (P < 0.02). Seizures are responsible for increased dependency except in patients with those of VLO (P < 0.03). Patients with EO seizures have the worse outcome (P = 0.0111) with a trend of more status epilepticus (P = 0.066) but less recurrence (P = 0.003). A cardiac-embolic source is more common in patients with seizures due to RI (P = 0.015). Post-ictal EEG patterns are significantly different from those in the patients without seizures (P < 0.001) except for seizures of VLO.

CONCLUSIONS

There are significant differences in the seizure characteristics according to their time of onset.