Idiopathic generalized epilepsies with versive or circling seizures

Objectives - To describe the electroclinical features of the idiopathic gen eralized epilepsies (IGEs) with versive or circling seizures. Methods Sixte en patients with versive or circling seizures and interictal electroclinica l features of IGE were studied. Patients with insufficient clinical or imag ing data, with a follow-up period less than 1 year or with partial seizures in addition to the versive or circling ones were excluded from the study. All patients underwent full interictal clinical and neurophysiological stud ies. The EEG patterns of 13 versive or circling seizures from 4 patients we re also analyzed. Results - A specific IGE syndrome was recognized in 9 out of the 16 patients (56%). More specific, 1 patient had childhood absence e pilepsy (CAE), 4 had juvenile absence epilepsy (JAE), and 4 had juvenile my oclonic epilepsy (JME). No specific IGE syndrome was recognizable in the re maining 7 patients (44%). These 7 patients had a juvenile epileptic syndrom e (mean age at onset of seizures was 15.7 years) characterized by versive o r circling seizures followed or not by generalized tonic-clonic fits. Three main EEG patterns were identified during versive or circling seizures: 1) generalized spike-and-wave discharges at 3-4 cps; 2) generalized polyspike- and-wave discharges at 1 to 2.5 cps beginning with generalized fast activit y at 12-14 cps, and 3) generalized spike-and-wave discharges at 3-4 cps int ermingled with fast activity at 12-14 cps. Most patients had good response to treatment on a single drug regimen (mainly valproic acid). Conclusions - Versive or circling seizures may occur in the context of an IGE. Although many individuals share the features of different IGE syndromes including CA E, JAE and JME, a consistent number of patients, who show circling or versi ve seizures solely, remain without a specific syndromic diagnosis. When occ urring in the context of IGE, circling or versive seizures do not worsen th e prognosis.