[Prognostic value of EEG abnormalities observed during sleep in epilepsy with rolandic spikes (RSE)].

The aim of this study is the quantitative analysis of the interictal discharges during nocturnal sleep in 6 children with rolandic spikes on the awake EEG, before and during treatment. During treatment, whatever it may be, these interictal discharges (diffuse spike and wave complexes and rolandic spikes) have no prognostic value and only the generalized paroxysmal ones, which are observed solely in sleep, decrease. Moreover, if the number of spikes of a slow irritative focus secondary to an organic cerebral lesion keeps steady during wakefulness and all sleep stages, the number of rolandic spikes is modulated by the type of sleep (REM or NREM). This modulation may be in favour of the benignity of this childhood epilepsy. Finally, in spite of the great number of interictal discharges during the whole night, sleep organization is not disturbed and only the advent of an epileptic seizure can interfere with sleep rhythms, depleting the REM phase.