[Clinical and EEG evaluation of mid-line spikes in childhood].

We studied the clinical and electroencephalographic (EEG) characteristics of 45 patients with mid-line spikes. The incidence of mid-line spikes was 3.0% in total EEG population in childhood. Sex incidence was equal. First appearance age of mid-line spikes ranged from one month to 12 years, with a mean of 5.0 years old. Fz focus was in 3 patients, Cz in 31 and Pz in 11. Thirty two of the 45 patients (71%) had a history of clinical seizures; 16 with febrile convulsions and 16 with epileptic seizures. Of the remaining 13 patients without a history of seizures, the EEG was obtained because of post-meningitis in 4, developmental delayed in 4, migraine in 1 and miscellaneous in 4. Mid-line spikes might not have so strong correlations with clinical seizures. Ten patients had a family history of epilepsy and/or febrile convulsion. In the patients with seizures, generalized tonic-clonic seizures were the most frequent type (18; primary GTC and 10; secondary GTC with partial onset). Elementary symptoms of partial seizures were very variable (focal motor in 5, Jacksonian march in 1, aversive in 1, autonomic in 2 and automatism in 5), and which might be related to the other lesions such as temporal and/or frontal lobes. Seizure control was almost good except for two patients with organic brain damage. And other neurological symptoms were not also progressive. On EEG findings, twenty-two patients had midline spikes as their only epileptiform abnormality. The remaining twenty-three had an additional epileptiform feature, either a focal spikes or a generalized spike-wave.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)