Abstract
Background: The aim of the current study was to assess the value of simultaneous EKG with EEG to diagnose cardiac disorders in patients with seizure- like attacks and to investigate the extent of misdiagnosis of epilepsy.
Materiak and Methods: Of 210 patients presenting with transient loss of consciousness (TLoC) and paroxysmal events suspicious to seizure were studied. All patients had undergone EEG simultaneous with an EKG. Besides reporting the EEG, a cardiologist analyzed the EKG in an attempt to recognize abnormal EKG as a potential cause of TLoC. Moreover, in all patients it was ascertained if any cardiac disorders in patients and their first degree relatives had been diagnosed.
Results: Sixteen out of two hundred ten (7.6%) patients had abnormal EKG which was significantly potential cause of symptom of whom 6 patients were found to have bradycardia and 10 patients had dysrhythmias. Moreover, in patients with previous cardiovascular disorder, 30.4% had abnormal EKG where as in patients without cardiac disease only 4.8% had EKG abnormalities. Besides in patients with positive family history for cardiac disease 20.3% had abnormal EKG while in patients without family history of cardiac disease, abnormal EKG was revealed in only 2.05% patients
Conclusion: Simultaneous EKG with EEG is valuable in declining rate of misdiagnosis of epilepsy. Besides, EKG abnormalities in these patients have a significant association with any previous cardiovascular disorders in the patients and in their first degree relatives.
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© 2014, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.