The electroencephalogram in syncope - Wiley Online Library

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May 15, 2018 - Wieling W, Thijs RD, van Dijk N, Wilde AA, Benditt DG, van Dijk JG. ... Journal of General and Family Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons ...
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Received: 1 May 2018    Accepted: 15 May 2018 DOI: 10.1002/jgf2.177

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The electroencephalogram in syncope C O N FL I C T O F I N T E R E S T

To the Editor 1

I read with great interest the recent article reported by Izumi et al.

The authors reported the findings of electroencephalograms (EEGs) of patients with cardiac syncope. In the discussion, they stated that

The authors have stated explicitly that there are no conflicts of interest in connection with this article.

few researchers have revealed the cause of systemic convulsion, which leads to whole-­brain ischemia measurable by EEG. However, the EEG findings during cardiac syncope were already investigated more than 50 years ago.2

ORCID Junpei Komagamine 

One of the best-­known studies regarding the EEG findings during syncope was conducted by Gastaut et al. 2,3 They reported that during longer cardiac arrests (approximately 7–13 seconds), bilateral

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5899-4760 Junpei Komagamine MD

Department of Internal Medicine, National Hospital Organization Tochigi Medical Center, Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan

and synchronous slow waves often appeared but were not always 2

accompanied by a loss of consciousness. They also reported that when cardiac arrest lasted more than around 14 seconds, one or two generalized clonic jerks appeared without affecting the EEG. 2 The EEG in syncope can show two patterns: a slow-­flat-­slow pattern and 3

a slow activity only pattern. The EEG findings of this case exhibit the latter pattern. Renowned neurologists have already clarified this issue.

REFERENCES 1. Izumi M, Okabe T, Komura M, Hyashi Y. Convulsive syncope on electroencephalogram. J Gen Fam Med. 2018;19:109–10. 2. Gastaut H, Fisher-Williams M. Electro-­encephalographic study of syncope: its difference from epilepsy. Lancet. 1957;2:1018–25. 3. Wieling W, Thijs RD, van Dijk N, Wilde AA, Benditt DG, van Dijk JG. Symptoms and signs of syncope: a review of the link between physiology and clinical clues. Brain. 2009;132:2630–42.

AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S None.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author. Journal of General and Family Medicine published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Japan Primary Care Association. J Gen Fam Med. 2018;1.

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