Midazolam or diazepam administration during electroencephalography helps to diagnose subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE).

Although diagnostic contribution of intravenous diazepam administration during electroencephalography (EEG) recording in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis has been known, no another drug with less potential side effects has been studied in this procedure. In this study, diazepam is compared with midazolam in 25 subacute sclerosing panencephalitis-diagnosed children and 10 children with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis-suggesting symptoms, normal EEG findings and no certain diagnosis. Neither midazolam nor diazepam affected typical periodic slow-wave complexes. However, in the patients with atypical EEG abnormalities, midazolam, like diazepam, attenuated sharp or sharp-and-slow waves, and therefore made the identification of periodic slow-wave paroxysms easier. In the patients with normal EEGs, both midazolam and diazepam revealed typical periodic complexes on EEG recording in the same 3 patients. Cerebrospinal fluid examination verified the diagnosis of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. The findings suggest that midazolam or diazepam administration increases the contribution of EEG recording in atypical cases with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.