FREQUENCY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF EARLY SEIZURES IN CHINESE ACUTE STROKE

We retrospectively studied 1200 hospitalized acute strokes of all etio logies between July 1990 and August 1992. Ninety-six % of all strokes underwent computed tomography of the head. Fifty-eight percent of the 1200 strokes were brain infarction, 32% brain hemorrhage, 6% subarachn oid hemorrhage and 4% were other stroke subtypes. Thirty (2.5%) of all strokes suffered from early seizures. The incidences of early seizure s were 2.8% in brain hemorrhage, 2.3% in brain infarction, 2.7% in sub arachnoid hemorrhage and 2% in other stroke subtypes. Early seizures w ere documented in 6% of the patients with carotid territory cortical i nfarctions and 12% of the patients with lobar hemorrhage, whereas only 0.6% of the patients without carotid territory cortical infarctions a nd 0.6% of the patients without lobar hemorrhage were affected. Sixty- six percent of 30 early seizures were partial seizures, 24% generalize d and status epilepticus were seen only in 10%. In conclusion, we foun d the early seizure incidence was 2.5% in Chinese patients hospitalize d with acute strokes. There was no correlation between seizure occurre nce and stroke subtypes. Early seizure developed significantly higher in acute stroke patients with lesions of the cortex than those patient s without cortical involvement. The partial seizures were the most fre quent type occurring in 66% of all acute stroke patients with early se izures.