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  • Updated 04.08.2024
  • Released 11.10.2008
  • Expires For CME 04.08.2027

EEG in epilepsy

Introduction

Overview

The electroencephalogram (EEG) is a widely available, cost-effective, portable neurophysiological study of brain function with worldwide applications. As a window into the brain, it remains the foundational diagnostic tool to evaluate people suspected of seizures. It is a safe, noninvasive, diagnostic, 2-dimensional clinical study used to assess the brain’s 3-dimensional electrophysiological activity. EEG is the most useful test for evaluating people with possible epilepsy when epileptiform activity is demonstrated. It may provide specific neurophysiological information to support clinical diagnoses in the EEG laboratory, epilepsy monitoring unit, emergency room, inpatient wards, including the intensive care unit, or operating room and can assist in the evaluation of people in an ambulatory setting. When interictal epileptiform discharges are recorded on EEG, it serves to classify the seizure type or epilepsy syndrome that is suspected based on clinical grounds. Following electroclinical classification as focal or generalized onset, the results help to guide selection of antiseizure medication. EEG is an important adjunct to the clinical examination for diagnosing and treating epilepsy as well as subclinical or unrecognized seizures. It is foundational in the diagnosis of nonconvulsive status epilepticus in critically ill patients when the clinical examination is unrevealing. Clinical management algorithms have been developed specifically using EEG data in this setting to guide the use of continuous EEG and antiseizure medications. Rapid EEG systems are becoming widely used in urgent evaluation of status epilepticus. In the operating room, electrocorticography helps neurosurgeons define surgical borders of functional and epileptogenic tissues. Chronic electrocorticography obtained from a responsive neurostimulation device assists in treatment decision-making. With the increasing emphasis on outpatient management, ambulatory EEG has become a staple in assessing patients with home video-EEG telemetry to record a patient’s EEG in the home environment.

Overall, the utility of EEG has evolved into a sophisticated computer-based clinical and research tool that is fundamental for exploring essential brain functions. Despite the innovation of neuroimaging the anatomy of the brain, EEG continues to have a vital role in the dynamic physiologic evaluation of neurologic disease. In this way, it extends usage in patients with seizures and epilepsy to diagnosis and monitoring neurologic disorders, such as encephalopathy, traumatic brain injury, sleep disorders, coma, and brain death.

Key points

• EEG is the diagnostic test of choice when evaluating a patient with seizures and epilepsy, though pitfalls exist in interpretation because of artifacts, normal variations, and benign variants that can mimic epileptiform abnormalities.

• Epilepsy is a clinical diagnosis that is supported by epileptiform activity on EEG and is confirmed when EEG records an electrographic seizure in a patient.

• EEG may help classify seizures and epilepsy syndromes for appropriate treatment by defining the frequency, spatial distribution, and evolution of epileptiform abnormalities as well as quantify the frequency of seizure occurrence.

• Misdiagnosis of nonepileptic events as seizures is probably not rare due to EEG misinterpretation, and long-term EEG monitoring in the epilepsy monitoring unit and the intensive care unit may yield diagnostic clarity of the seizure burden.

• The surgical treatment of epilepsy relies on ictal EEG to characterize the electroclinical localization of the epileptogenic zone.

• Special waveforms, recording conditions, and new techniques are expanding EEG usefulness beyond the application in epilepsy to involve other brain diseases, and artificial intelligence is evolving to assist in diagnostic evaluation.

Historical note and terminology

In his seminal work “Uber das Elektroenkephalogram des Menschen” (“On the EEG of Man”), Hans Berger pioneered the discovery of the human EEG, first recorded in 1929 (29). The practical usefulness of EEG became apparent in the 1930s after interictal discharges were demonstrated first by Fisher and Lowenback and later by Gibbs, David, and Lennox in the United States.

In 1936, W Gray Walter demonstrated that this technology could aid in the diagnosis of tumors, stroke, and other focal brain disorders. For 40 years, EEG was the cornerstone to the diagnosis and treatment of seizures and epilepsy. Until the advent of CT and MRI, it was the first-line neurodiagnostic test for diagnosing tumors, stroke, and other focal brain disorders.

EEG data were analyzed by visual inspection until the 1960s when digital equipment was introduced to begin the age of computerizing the EEG. In the 1970s, the Fourier transform, computer-based algorithms and analytics, quantitative EEG, and trend analysis became a reality. Recent advances have centered on transforming discrete sources as stable linear dipoles to model EEG using inverse methods to depict the EEG in source space. Furthermore, newer algorithms are capable of accurately differentiating normal and abnormal as well as classifying focal and generalized slowing and epileptiform discharges.

Terminology. In 2017, after 35 years, the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) released a new classification of seizure types, largely based on the existing classification originally formulated in 1981 (24) and further standardized terminology for seizure classification. In broad terms, epilepsy syndromes are classified as generalized, focal, or unknown with an etiology of genetic, structural-metabolic, or unknown (24). Seizures are classified according to where they start in the brain (80; 80). Generalized seizures originate within both hemispheres and rapidly engage bilaterally distributed networks of neurons at onset (35). The term “bilateral” is used for focal seizures that propagate to both hemispheres, and “generalized” is a term used for seizures that begin simultaneously in both hemispheres.

Focal seizures refer to those seizures that originate within networks limited to one hemisphere. Focal seizures may start on the surface of the brain or in deeper structures and remain restricted to an area within the hemisphere (focal aware seizures) or spread beyond a single hemisphere to involve a larger network (focal impaired awareness seizures and focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures). Focal seizures are classified as motor and nonmotor. Adding descriptions of other signs and symptoms is suggested (ie, focal aware motor seizure). Unknown seizures reflect those without a clear onset at the beginning or when atypical and mixed forms of focal and generalized seizures co-exist.

The application of the standard scalp EEG in epilepsy has relied on the electrocerebral activity largely between the 1 to 30 Hz bandwidth (ie, Berger’s bandwidth). Filter settings are increasingly being “opened” during video epilepsy monitoring to obtain full-band EEG, providing a more comprehensive approach (79). Newer applications of frequencies (ie, gamma and high-frequency oscillations) are now being explored to enhance disclosure of brain regions and the networks that are involved in seizure genesis (Table 1). Faster frequencies are particularly important when using invasive EEG techniques as they may not always be transmitted to the scalp for EEG recording.

Table 1. Bandwidth and Interpretation of EEG Waveform Frequencies

Frequency (Hz)

Bandwidth

Normal

Pathological

0.0 - 0.5

Infraslow activity*

Artifacts

Onset of focal seizures

0.5 - 3.5

Delta

Sleep, HV, PSWY, elderly

Encephalopathy, white matter lesion

>3.5 - <8.0

Theta

Drowsiness, children, elderly

Encephalopathy, white matter lesion

8 - 13

Alpha

PDR, mu rhythm, “third” rhythm

Ictal rhythm in seizure, alpha coma

13 - 30

Beta

Medication, drowsiness

Breach rhythm, drug overdose, ictal rhythm

30 - 80

Gamma*

Voluntary motor movement, learning/memory

Seizures

80 - 250

Ripples*

Cognitive processing/memory

Interictal and ictal seizure frequency, possible epileptogenesis

250 - 500

Fast ripples*

?

Focal seizures

500 - 1000

Very fast ripples*

Acquisition of sensory information

Seizures


* = Expanded frequencies currently under investigation

The EEG is composed of a combination of frequencies to be visualized as a complex mix of waveforms. Characteristic interictal EEG features of epilepsy are spikes (20 to 70 msec) and sharp waves (70 to 200 msec) when displayed on a review monitor at a display speed of 30 mm/second. True epileptiform discharges are distinguished from other sharply contoured waveforms by appearing dissimilar to the background waveforms surrounding them, disrupting the background, occupying a “definable physiological field,” having a rapid rise with an asymmetric appearance, and being associated with an after-going slow wave. The criteria for identifying them require several of these features to be present (38). Spikes and sharp waves can present in isolation or as polyspikes or polysharp waves. Spikes and sharp waves possess the same potential for seizure genesis independent of morphology.

Each type of EEG recording in epilepsy has its own advantages and disadvantages. Standard scalp EEG recordings, short-term and rapid EEG, computer-assisted ambulatory EEG (CAA-EEG), and in-patient continuous video EEG monitoring (VEM) are different methods of EEG recording (42), each with different clinical benefits and limitations (Table 3).

Scalp EEG is the simplest, least expensive, most practical, and, therefore, most common method to acquire EEG during routine clinical use. A standard scalp EEG is usually a brief 20- to 30-minute recording (but may extend up to 60 minutes duration). It is, therefore, typically inadequate for capturing infrequent paroxysmal neurologic events and abnormalities (06). A prospective study of EEGs from 1803 patients revealed that only 19% of the patients had interictal epileptiform discharges in the first 30 minutes of recording, but the event capture rate increased by 30% during longer recordings (13). Prolonged EEG is better able to capture seizures and neurologic events. One 5-year study of 175 outpatient short-term EEGs (shorter than 24 hours) found that 7% yielded seizures during the recording (61).

A higher diagnostic yield (40%) was found in children when EEG monitoring was longer than 6 hours (66). Prolonged the EEG recording either using CAA-EEG or inpatient video EEG monitoring offers distinct advantages. The yield of identifying epileptiform discharges to support a clinical diagnosis of epilepsy has been approximately 2.0 to 2.5 times that of a standard EEG and was cost-effective when compared to the gold standard of video EEG monitoring with a yield of ambulatory-EEG greater than 70% (18).

Routine, brief EEG recordings in the hospital can be of value in predicting the risk of seizures, need for continuous EEG monitoring, and institution of antiseizure medications (69; 41). In critically ill patients, studies have demonstrated that though most seizures are captured within 24 hours of recording, some may require even longer monitoring depending on risk factors and clinical history, up to 48 hours (68; 99).

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