De-novo non-convulsive status epilepticus in adult medical inpatients without known epilepsy: Analysis of mortality related factors and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Non-convulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) often goes unnoticed and is not easily detected in patients with a decreased level of consciousness, especially in older patients. In this sense, lack of data in this population is available. AIMS: The aim of the present study was to examine daily clinical practice and evaluate factors that may influence the prognosis of NCSE in non-epileptic medical inpatients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis including patients admitted by any cause in an Internal Medicine ward. All patients with compatible symptoms, exclusion of other causes, clinical suspicion or diagnosis of NCSE, and compatible EEG were included. Patients with a previous diagnosis of epilepsy were excluded. We also conducted a literature review by searching the PubMed/Medline database with the terms: Nonconvulsive Status OR Non-Convulsive Status. RESULTS: We included 54 patients, mortality rate reached 37% and the main factors linked to it were hypernatremia (OR = 16.2; 95% CI, 1.6-165.6; P = 0.019) and atrial fibrillation (OR = 6.7; 95% CI, 1.7-26; P = 0.006). There were no differences regarding mortality when comparing different diagnosis approach or treatment regimens. Our literature review showed that the main etiology of NCSE were neurovascular causes (17.8%), followed by antibiotic treatment (17.2%) and metabolic causes (17%). Global mortality in the literature review, excluding our series, reached 20%. DISCUSSION: We present the largest series of NCSE cases in medical patients, which showed that this entity is probably misdiagnosed in older patients and is linked to a high mortality. CONCLUSION: The presence of atrial fibrillation and hypernatremia in patients diagnosed with NCSE should advise physicians of a high mortality risk.

Miliary pattern, a classic pulmonary finding of tuberculosis disease.

INTRODUCTION: The increase in age of the population and in the use of immunosuppressive treatment makes tuberculosis (TB) with hematogenous or lymphatic dissemination a current problem. METHODS: We collected all the patients diagnosed with tuberculosis with miliary pulmonary pattern at the Santiago de Compostela University Teaching Hospital (NW Spain) from 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2015. RESULTS: A total of 27 patients were included, 70.4% women, with a median age of 69.0 years old. A cause of immunosuppression was observed only in 51.9% of patients. The majority of the cases (65.0%) presented pulmonary affectation. The most frequently isolated species was Mycobacterium tuberculosis (88.9%). Multiresistance to first-line antituberculosis drugs was observed only in 3.7%. 92.6% of the patients received treatment with Isoniazid, Rifampicin and Pyrazinamine, associated in 48.1% of them with Ethambutol. Two patients died during admission and there were no recurrences in the 2-years follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Miliary tuberculosis remains a current pathology. Most patients do not have a known cause of immunosuppression. The response to the typical treatment is usually good.