NOCTURNAL FRONTAL-LOBE EPILEPSY MISDIAGNOSED AS SLEEP-APNEA SYNDROME

Some clinical features as the awakenings with feeling of choking, the abnormal motor activity during sleep and the excessive daytime sleepin ess are relatively common both in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and in nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy. In these cases, a full-night vide o-polysomnographic monitoring is of the utmost importance to provide a differential diagnosis between the two conditions, and to verify, in the case of the co-existence of the two disorders, which is the one re sponsible for sleep disruption. In the present case reports, we descri bed 2 patients referred to our Sleep Disorders Center with the above m entioned clinical features and with a previous clinical diagnosis of o bstructive sleep apnea syndrome. After the recording of them, by means of full-night video-polysomnography, they were both diagnosed as havi ng nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy as the main sleep disorder and then successfully treated with carbamazepine.