Pathological EEG Findings in the Patients with the First Seizure Admitted to the Emergency Department

According to statistics, at least four percent of people experience one or more nonfebrile seizures in their life span. Continuous Electroencephalography (cEEG) Monitoring is a useful diagnostic tool for seizure detection. The purpose of this study was to investigate EEG findings in first-time seizure patients referred to emergency department (ED).

The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 80 first-time seizure patients admitted to ED, who were selected by convenience sampling method. The inclusion criteria were all patients aged more than 17 years with first-time seizure and informed written consent to participate in the study, and the exclusion criteria were cases where the seizure was not confirmed by a neurologist. An EEG was taken in the ED from the patient within 24 hours of the first attack. Finally, the frequency of pathological changes in EEG findings was determined in these patients. The statistical data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency and dispersion and frequency distribution) and inferential statistics.

The patients consisted of 35 (43.8%) males and 45 (56.2%) females. The patients had a mean age of 52.54±19.33 years and a median of 53 years. Among the patients, 46 (57.5%) had normal EEG findings, and 34 (42.5%) had abnormal (pathological) EEG findings.

According to the results of this study, 42.5% of patients had abnormal EEG findings, but it seems that accurate examination would require the use of other diagnostic tools along with EEG to diagnose patients with epilepsy and seizure more precisely.