[Napping sleep EEG in partial childhood epilepsy].

A nap sleep EEG with at least one full sleep cycle has been recorded in 3 groups of children free from diffuse encephalopathy and presenting with partial epilepsy with onset after the age of 3 years: 15 cases with typical benign epilepsy with centrorolandic spikes (BERS), 15 cases with partial symptomatic epilepsy without clinical or radiological evidence of a cerebral lesion, and 12 cases with partial epilepsy symptomatic of a proven cerebral lesion. The time course of paroxysmal abnormalities was quantified according to individual sleep stages; the number of foci was also quantified in the waking vs sleeping state. Paroxysmal abnormalities are significantly enhanced by sleep in all 3 groups: throughout sleep stages in BERS, in slow sleep stages only in the other groups. The enhancement is more striking in BERS, where a clear decrease of abnormalities is also found upon awakening. There is no major difference between the 2 symptomatic groups, with a greater enhancement of paroxysms in the proven lesional group. Contrary to the other groups, only the group including those patients with a documented cerebral lesion showed a significant increase in the number of foci during sleep: numerous foci were found in these patients that were distinct from the primary lesional focus. Under the conditions of our study, the nap EEG seems to provide an accurate evaluation of sleep-induced changes of paroxysmal activity in partial epilepsies of childhood.