Brain Tumor is a Rare Cause of both Bradycardia and Seizure

ABSTRACT

The association between brain tumors and cardiac asystole has rarely been reported in the medical literature. This potentially life-threatening symptom has usually been observed to arise from left temporal lobe brain tumors. Yet previously published papers have shown that cardiac asystole and bradycardia, as manifestations of epilepsy, originate from the frontal lobe of the brain. Although syncope is a common presenting symptom of a brain tumor, bradycardia and complete atrioventricular (AV) block, as the first signs of a brain tumor, have been only sporadically documented in the literature. We report here on a patient with recurrent complete AV blocks that were followed by syncope as an expression of seizures that may have arose from a brain tumor; this tumor was most likely a meningioma in the right frontal lobe. The patient required the subsequent placement of a permanent pacemaker. In conclusion, cardiac asystole may be a potentially life-threatening symptom of frontal lobe lesion of the brain. The frontal lobe may play a role in the autonomic regulation of cardiovascular responses.