Cerebral embolism and epileptic seizures--the role of the embolic source.

OBJECTIVES

To study the clinical outcome of patients with epileptic seizures due to ischemic stroke (IS) of cardiac or artery-to-artery embolism.

METHODS

Seizures due to IS of cardiac or artery-to-artery embolism are differentiated by clinical, neuroimaging and cardiovascular test data.

RESULTS

From 174 cases with supratentorial IS, 13 patients suffered from epileptic seizures due to cardiac embolism, 11 patients due to artery-to-artery embolism. The patients with cardiac IS showed an equal sex distribution and EEG abnormalities in 6 patients, the initial seizure occurred on average after 222 days (SD, +/-69 days). Among the 11 patients with artery-to-artery embolic IS, there were 9 males and 2 females and EEG abnormalities in 10 patients. The initial seizure occurred on average after 447 days (SD, +/-177 days).

CONCLUSION

In seizures due to artery-to-artery embolism, there is a male preponderance and a higher incidence of EEG abnormalities, symptomatic seizures appear later compared to IS due to cardiac embolism.