11-06-2006, 04:52 AM
A physician sees a 7-year-old girl who has been referred to him by the school nurse, who informs him that the child often has cessation of speech in midconversation, accompanied by a blank stare and flickering of the eyelids. These symptoms last approximately 10 seconds before she resumes regular activity. The physician suspects that the child has a seizure disorder and asks the child to hyperventilate. During hyperventilation, the aforementioned symptoms appear. Which of the following electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns is most characteristic of this disorder?
A: Hypsarrhythmia
B: Interictal slow-spike waves
C: Centrotemporal spikes
D: Three-per-second spike-and-wave pattern
E: Four- to six-per-second spike-and-wave pattern
A: Hypsarrhythmia
B: Interictal slow-spike waves
C: Centrotemporal spikes
D: Three-per-second spike-and-wave pattern
E: Four- to six-per-second spike-and-wave pattern