[Ambiguous epileptic syndrome: from the point of view of adults]. / Sindromes epilépticos ambiguos: perspectivas desde el adulto.

AIM: To review a series of neurological problems that we frequently encounter in our day-to-day clinical practice and which are difficult to diagnose correctly because of the type of presenting symptoms and clinical features they have. DEVELOPMENT: In spite of the fact that a good patient record and detailed neurological examination are still essential, use of long-term (LT) video-EEG monitoring is sometimes indispensable given the ambiguity of the clinical signs and symptoms. Selected subjects were young adult patients of both sexes who had been referred to the Epilepsy Unit at our hospital for study, due to the existence of doubts about their diagnosis. A detailed patient record was drawn up for each patient, and they were also submitted to a neurological examination and LT video-EEG monitoring, which lasted between two and six days. In some of these patients, the diagnosis was modified following their admission and important changes were introduced in their treatment. CONCLUSIONS: LT video-EEG is an important test when it comes to establishing a correct neurological diagnosis in patients with mixed or poorly defined clinical symptoms.

Síndromes epilépticos ambiguos: perspectivas desde el adulto / Ambiguous epileptic syndrome: from the point of view of adults

Objetivo. Revisar una serie de problemas neurológicos,que vemos con frecuencia en nuestra clínica diaria y que por suforma de presentación y características clínicas suponen una dificultada la hora de su correcto diagnóstico. Desarrollo. A pesar de que una buena historia clínica y una exploración neurológica detalladasiguen siendo fundamentales, la monitorización de larga duración(MLD) vídeo-EEG representa un arma en ocasiones imprescindibledada la ambigüedad de los síntomas y signos clínicos. Sehan seleccionado pacientes adultos jóvenes, de ambos sexos, remitidosa la Unidad de Epilepsia de nuestro hospital para estudio,por dudas en el diagnóstico. A todos se les realizó historia clínicadetallada, exploración neurológica y MLD vídeo-EEG, de entredos a seis días de duración. En algunos de estos pacientes, el diagnósticose modificó tras el ingreso y se realizaron importantes cambiosen el tratamiento. Conclusión. La MLD vídeo-EEG es una exploraciónimportante a la hora de establecer un diagnóstico neurológicocorrecto en pacientes con sintomatología clínica abigarradao mal definida

Aim. To review a series of neurological problems that we frequently encounter in our day-to-day clinical practiceand which are difficult to diagnose correctly because of the type of presenting symptoms and clinical features they have.Development. In spite of the fact that a good patient record and detailed neurological examination are still essential, use oflong-term (LT) video-EEG monitoring is sometimes indispensable given the ambiguity of the clinical signs and symptoms.Selected subjects were young adult patients of both sexes who had been referred to the Epilepsy Unit at our hospital for study,due to the existence of doubts about their diagnosis. A detailed patient record was drawn up for each patient, and they werealso submitted to a neurological examination and LT video-EEG monitoring, which lasted between two and six days. In someof these patients, the diagnosis was modified following their admission and important changes were introduced in theirtreatment. Conclusions. LT video-EEG is an important test when it comes to establishing a correct neurological diagnosis inpatients with mixed or poorly defined clinical symptoms