Small sharp spikes: possible relationship to epilepsy

The incidence of SSS in epileptic patients was compared with that in nonepileptic patients. The former group showed a significantly higher value (8.6%) than the latter group (2.5%). Among seizure types, SSS were most closely related to complex partial seizures. Most of the epileptic patients with SSS showed definite anterior temporal spikes with time, and the outcome of SSS correlated with the clinical course of seizures. These findings suggest that SSS have a closer association with epilepsy, particularly of temporal lobe origin. Some features that were different between the epileptic and nonepileptic patients with SSS were found, including the age of occurrence, laterality and the level of consciousness when they appear in the EEG.