[Electrolyte composition of the cerebrospinal fluid and neuromuscular excitability in epilepsy].

Clinical (Chvostek symptom and Trousseau-Bonsdorf test) and electromyographical investigations of the neuromuscular excitability were performed in patients with different forms of epilepsy. Ionized Ca, Na, K, Cl, and total Mg were measured in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Seventy-five percent of the patients showed clinical and electromyographic signs of the tetanic syndrome. In patients with general seizures the CSF ionized Ca content was decreased as related to that of normal subjects. Brain and neuromuscular excitability increase was related with the shifts in Ca metabolism.