Piloerection is an involuntary erection of body
hairs that usually has physiological correlates such as
cold or a strong emotional experience.
Piloerection may also be a rare manifestation of seizure.Here, we
report a case of 54-year-old man
who experienced pilomotor seizures from
temporal lobe epilepsy. The
patient presented with sudden
piloerection and no
loss of consciousness many times a day.
Magnetic resonance imagingof the
brain showed threelesions in the right hemisphere, with the largest lesion in the right
temporal lobe. A video-
EEG showed an ictal discharge in the
delta range with right temporal onset.
Digital subtraction angiography excluded
arteriovenous malformation. The lesion in the right
temporal lobe was resected.
Immunohistochemistry confirmed a
cerebral cavernous malformation. There was no further seizure. A
review of the published
literature revealed that ictal
piloerection as a lone manifestation is rare. Most cases of pilomotor seizure originate in the
temporal lobe. Close to four fifth of the cases has a structural lesion.
EEG was able to confirm the
diagnosis of ictal
piloerection in the majority of cases.