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Wicket Spikes: Clinical Correlates of a Previously Undescribed EEG Pattern

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2018

Jean Reiher*
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Michel Lebel
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
*
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Sherbrooke, Quebec, J1H 5N4 Canada.
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Summary

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From an analysis of the electroencephalograms of 4,458 patients who underwent recording during both wakefulness and sleep, through the years 1969 to 1975, wicket spikes — recorded in 39 patients — may be described as follows:

They were found during both wakefulness and sleep, almost exclusively in adults. Their cardinal feature is a changing mode of occurrence through any single recording: from intermittent trains of more or less sustained, arciform, discharges resembling mu rhythm, to sporadic, unitary, single spikes. When occurring singly, wicket spikes can be mistaken for anterior or middle temporal spikes, since they predominate in either area, and since they share with them other characteristics such as amplitude (60 to 210 microvolts), polarity (surface negative) duration, and configuration.

Wicket spikes should not be considered interictal abnormalities; they do not correlate with epilepsy or with any particular symptom complex.

Résumé

Résumé

Sur un total de 4,458 malades adressés à notre laboratoire entre 1969 et 1975 pour un enregistrement à l’état de veille et de sommeil, des pointes arciformes ont été recueillies chez 39 sujets.

Les pointes arciformes se reconnaissent aux caractéristiques suivantes: elles se retrouvent tant à l’état de veille que pendant le sommeil, et, presque exclusivement chez l’adulte. Fait singulier, elles surviennent uniformément, dans chaque cas, tantôt en trains constitués de décharges soutenues, plus ou moins prolongées, ressemblant alors au rhythme mu; tantôt de façon isolée, pouvant donner alors le change pour des pointes temporales antérieures ou moyennes; de ces dernières, dont elles partagent d’autres constantes telles amplitude, durée, polarité et localisation, les pointes arciformes ne se distinguent que par leur distribution temporelle.

La distinction entre pointes arciformes et pointes temporales n’en demeure pas moins capitale; car contrairement aux pointes temporales antérieures et moyennes, elles n’ont rien d’une anomalie inter-critique; aucune corrélation n’a pu en effet être retenue entre pointes arciformes et épilepsie, qu’elle soit généralisée ou partielle, temporale ou extra-temporale.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1977

References

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