Geut I, et al. – The goal of this research was to examine if ambulatory EEG (aEEG) has similar diagnostic accuracy as sleep deprived EEG (sdEEG). Diagnostic accuracies of sdEEG and aEEG were similar. Depending on patients’ and clinicians’ preference both could be considered in patients with a first seizure and a normal routine EEG to determine recurrence risk.

Methods

• The physicians enrolled patients with an unprovoked first seizure and a normal routine EEG who subsequently underwent an sdEEG or aEEG in this retrospective cohort.
• They reviewed all EEGs for the presence of interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs).
• Using the clinical diagnosis of epilepsy as golden standard, they calculated specificity and sensitivity of sdEEG and aEEG.
• For this study, all patients had a follow-up of 1 year.

Results

• A total of 104 patients were included.
• In this study, sensitivities for sdEEG and aEEG were 45% (specificity 91%) and 63% (specificity 95%), respectively.
• With a relative risk of 1.5 of having a recurrent seizure within a year, independent risk factor for recurrent seizure was IEDs on the additional EEG.