Difficulties in diagnosis of solitary and sporadic epileptic seizures.

OBJECTIVE: Authors warn of difficulties in diagnostic of solitary epileptic seizure and epilepsy.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Our groups have been made up of patients, who have been dismissed from our clinic in the period from January 1997 to January 2007 with diagnosis of solitary unprovoked epileptic seizure (n=84) and epilepsy with sporadic epileptic seizure (n=179). We have evaluated the clinical typology of epileptic seizure, EEG findings and results of imaging methods and we determined the part of patients with complete diagnostic concordance between clinical image of epileptic seizure and results of auxiliary diagnostic methods.

RESULTS: We have denoted the complete diagnostic concordance among the clinical image, EEG findings and results of imaging methods only in 13.1% of patients after solitary unprovoked epileptic seizure and in 24.02% of patients with diagnosis of epilepsy with sporadic epileptic seizures. The receiving diagnosis of unclear seizure status was determined at 49.14% of patients dismissed with diagnosis of solitary epileptic seizure and at 40.78% of patients dismissed with diagnosis of epilepsy with sporadic epileptic seizures in 10 year time period.

CONCLUSION: Our results repeat the confirmation that the diagnostic of seizure disorders, with and without disturbance of consciousness, belong to the difficult part in the clinical praxis.