In the present study, we enrolled 60 participants divided in equal numbers into two groups, namely, drug-resistant and drug-responsive. We aimed to evaluate differences in QEEG readings of drug-resistant and drug-responsive patients with IGE with tonic-clonic seizures.
Based on the literature, an EEG taken immediately after seizure, known as postictal EEG, may show abnormal findings in 2–86% of cases (15). As such, we observed abnormal findings in the EEGs recorded for 38.55% of our patients, which was in line with the 2014 study led by Hemmati et al. on 111 patients, that reported abnormal findings in 36.7% of patients (16). Similarly, Jeong et al. demonstrated a prevalence of 31% for abnormal EEGs in their population of 131 epileptic children, with higher occurrence in those affected by complex febrile seizures that commonly comprised sharp waves, followed by slow waves (17). Karimzadeh et al. conducted an EEG study on 36 children with febrile seizure within 48 hours and 2 weeks from the occurrence of seizure, noting similar distribution of sharp and slow waves in terms of prevalence. Though, they did not report a significant difference between EEGs taken at different times, as the prevalence of abnormal EEGs among those taken at 2 and 14 days following seizure was 80.6% and 69.4%, respectively (18). The apparent disparity in the findings of this particular study with those of ours could have emanated from differences in the age and number of participants. Hemmati et al. observed more extensive changes, although not significant, in the EEG of participants of smaller age (16).
In the present investigation the mean ages of subjects were also similar between subjects with abnormal and normal EEGs. Nevertheless, the drug-resistant group did exhibit a statistically significant difference in their age, compared with the control or drug-responsive group.
Our experimental population (n = 60) consisted of 41 (68.3%) female and 19 (31.7%) male patients, indicating an overall higher prevalence of epilepsy among women. Likewise, Picot et al., in 2008, reported that women in France were more commonly affected by epileptic disorders than men (19).
We noted significant differences in the frequencies of alpha, beta and theta (anterior band), alpha, beta, delta and theta (central band), and beta, delta and theta (posterior band) waves between drug-resistant and drug-responsive groups. A significant difference was also discovered in the prevalence rates of abnormal EEGs between the two groups, that were 53.3% and 23.8%, respectively. Consistently, Clemens, in 2004, found a significant correlation between the abnormality of EEG and complicity of IGE (13). In 2008, Santiago-Rodríguez et al. identified abnormal Z-transformed absolute power scores in anteroposterior (AP) delta bands in frontotemporal and occipital leads, and AP alpha and beta bands in frontoparietal leads of patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) (20). Cekirge et al. confirmed presence of aberrancy in alpha, beta, delta and theta bands of epileptic patients of Turkish descent in 2017 (21). Most recently, in 2021, Chacón et al. came across higher beta, delta and theta, and lower alpha frequencies in their control subjects, i.e., patients with epileptic encephalopathy who had not been receiving cannabidiol Epidiolex (22).
In the present investigation, we noticed a significant association between sex and resistance to therapy, as male patients were more likely to exhibit drug-resistance. Likewise, abnormal EEG was found to be correlated with sex, since men more often displayed aberrancies in their EEG. Few studies have sought to delve into the relationship between EEG aberrancy and sex, because it is a difficult subject matter to investigate. However, some have stipulated that this difference might be due to different effects of sex or gonadal hormones on EEG, in view of the fact that male patients were shown to have lower serum levels of testosterone (23), which is thought to reduced EEG synchronization and prevent hyper-synchronization in normal concentrations (24). This is one of the basic principles underlying administration of levetiracetam in the treatment of epilepsy, as it effectively abrogates hyper-synchronization (25).
In 2000, García-Marín and González-Feria suggested that the routinely performed EEG, rather than QEEG, was not a suitable method for patient follow-up. They also proposed deep or intracranial placement of electrodes as a candidate method for monitoring of neuronal activity in temporal lobe epileptic disorders (26). Ebner and Hoppe, in 1995, reported preoperative interictal and ictal EEG findings of 24 patients with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS), highlighting the occurrence of spike waves in the contralateral temporal lobe in 50% of cases, along with an ictal EEG seizure pattern comprising rhythmical activity in the delta, theta, or alpha range (27). In their investigation on temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), Ebersole and Pacia concluded that EEG might be of great clinical value at discerning seizures of temporal neocortical origin from those of hippocampal origin (28). Another work with greater resemblance to the present study, by O’Brien et al., found that patients with TLE secondary to MTS were not different from patients with neocortical lesion-induced TLE in terms of EEG waves (29), while Watanabe et al. suggested that temporal lobe spikes recorded in EEG might be the result of mesial temporal spikes propagating to neocortex (30). Regardless, Raghavendra et al. still recognize EEG as the most important diagnostic tool for non-invasive detection of TLE (31).
We acknowledge that our study has some limitations which should be taken into account in interpretation of the findings. In this regard, the current investigation is limited in its scope and participants, and several confounding factor such as mood disorders, underlying medical conditions and duration of treatment might have been left unaddressed.(14). There were significant differences between the groups in terms of age and sex, while we did not conduct regression model to adjust the different findings for other characteristics of the sample. Therefore, the findings could arguably be attributed to low sample size and disproportionate gender or age representation in the study. We did not consider treatment with valproate as a separate item in this study, since in some cases it can define the refractoriness of epilepsy in IGE.