Evaluation of the accuracy of seizure descriptions by the relatives of patients with epilepsy
Introduction
The diagnosis of epilepsy relies primarily upon a detailed eyewitness account of a seizure. The description of seizures by witnesses is often incomplete or inaccurate. Descriptions can occasionally be misleading to the extent that psychogenic episodes may be incorrectly diagnosed as epileptic, leading to treatment with anti-epileptic medication for several years that is ineffective, costly and has adverse effects (Aird and Tsukaki, 1958, Meierkord et al., 1991). Further, seizures may be incorrectly classified and therefore treated inappropriately. Videorecording and, in particular, simultaneous video/EEG recording has been shown to increase the accuracy of diagnosis, importantly identifying those patients with non-epileptic attack disorder (Luther et al., 1982, Meierkord et al., 1991, Samuel and Duncan, 1994).
The in-patient Assessment and Treatment Centre of the National Society for Epilepsy and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Chalfont receives tertiary referrals of patients with epilepsy from all over the UK. The seizures of all patients in the assessment centre are videotaped and these recordings are reviewed by medical staff to aid seizure classification. In addition, structured questionnaires are used routinely to quickly assess and classify patients’ attacks. For the purposes of this study, the seizures of 30 patients were videotaped and their relatives or close friends completed a questionnaire after watching the recorded seizure. We report the accuracy of these completed questionnaires in describing the videotaped event.
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Subjects and methods
Seventy-three patients (42 women) were admitted to the Assessment and Treatment Centre over a 16-week period, for review of diagnosis, optimization of medication for apparently refractory epilepsy or pre-surgical assessment. All patients gave written consent for the study.
The camera used was a lightweight, hand-held, battery-powered video camcorder, which was both readily available to unit staff and easy to operate. A zoom function facilitated the recording of eye and facial detail and a
Results
Forty-three of the 73 patients admitted had seizures videotaped. Thirteen were excluded either because the videorecording showed only a small proportion of the attack or only the post-ictal period, recording quality was too poor for adequate visualisation of the patient or witnesses were not available to view the videorecording. The remaining 30 patients (19 women) were aged 18–71 years (mean: 34.8 years).
Of the 30 patients, 16 (53%) had epileptic seizures recorded, of which six were
Discussion
The aim of the study was to assess the accuracy of witnesses describing a previously viewed event, therefore emulating conditions encountered in the out-patients’ department when details are sought regarding a patient's seizures.
The accuracy relies on the witnesses’ ability to recall the episode, which is most likely dependant on factors relating to both seizure and witness, including the complexity of the seizure, level of concentration and attention, awareness of all the possible elements of
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2021, SeizureCitation Excerpt :Regrettably, these witness reports are also generally unreliable and subject to considerable variability. Core features of a seizure may be missed, or worse, erroneously reported [6, 7]. Some tools may ameliorate this loss of information.