Silent hippocampal seizures and spikes identified by foramen ovale electrodes in Alzheimer's disease.

Lam, Alice D; Deck, Gina; Goldman, Alica; Eskandar, Emad N; Noebels, Jeffrey; Cole, Andrew J · Nat Med · 2017

case_report · Level V

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Abstract

We directly assessed mesial temporal activity using intracranial foramen ovale electrodes in two patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) without a history or EEG evidence of seizures. We detected clinically silent hippocampal seizures and epileptiform spikes during sleep, a period when these abnormalities were most likely to interfere with memory consolidation. The findings in these index cases support a model in which early development of occult hippocampal hyperexcitability may contribute to the pathogenesis of AD.

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