[Studies on the circadian periodicity in patients with the awakening type of idiopathic epilepsy (author's transl)].

In 6 patients with idiopathic epilepsy of the awakening type and 3 control subjects, the heart rate, body temperature and urinary excretion of sodium, potassium and calcium were measured over 72 h. The patients and the control subjects stayed in the hospital under constant environmental conditions including a standard diet with a constant content of sodium, potassium and calcium. The diet began 2 days before the onset of data collection. No drugs were given during the whole period. The data obtained during the 72-hour period were scored visually concerning the position of the maxima and minima, whereas the period duration was calculated by means of power spectral analysis. The epileptic patients showed more inconstant results concerning the time of maxima and minima as well as the 24-hour periodicity. However, a constant deviation i.e. a constant phase shift or a constant change in period duration into the same direction could not be observed. The different parameters showed different behavior even in the same patient. Thus a constant difference in the circadian periodicity between normal subjects and patients with epilepsy of the awakening type could not be found in the data recorded in the present study.