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What is Myoclonus?
Myoclonus can be described as brief jerks of the body [1]. It can be any part of the body but it’s mostly seen in patient’s limbs or facial muscles [2]. Myclonus jerks can be epileptic or no epileptic [3]. If the jerks are no epileptic they are not caused by over firing of neurons in the brain. But they may be due to some nervous system disorder. If the myoclonic jerks are correlated with abnormalities in brain wave activity, evaluated of the possible cause will be investigated. When myoclonic jerks are associated with abnormal brain wave activity to just two seizures it can be categorized as a myoclonic seizure. If the abnormal brain wave activity is persistent and results from ongoing seizures, the person will be diagnosed with myoclonic epilepsy. After much testing is done on a patient suffering from myoclonic epilepsy, doctors are more able to make the diagnosis of idiopathic, encephalopathic or if it correlates with a degenerative syndrome.
What are Myoclonic Epilepsies?
There are various forms of epilepsy that fall under myoclonic epilepsies. Myoclonic seizures are seizures that can occur a couple times but do not last throughout the patient’s life. The diagnosis of myoclonic epilepsy takes place when the patient experiences ongoing seizures throughout one’s life. The myoclonic epilepsies and seizures are categorized according to if the patient experiences jerking, or twitching of the body. The jerks are usually involuntary and can be responsible for multiple falls. Some seizures forms of the epilepsy group can be resistant to anti-epileptic drugs and is often associated with cognitive impairment [2]. Myoclonic seizures usually begin in early childhood as astactic seizures with jerks so strong that it can cause falling. Eventually as the child grows it can lead into a diagnosis of idiopathic epilepsy syndrome or encephalopathic epilepsy syndrome.
Usage of EEG-
The EEG can be used to read brain wave activity from the scalp in patients with myoclonic epilepsies. Spike activity produced from the brain is usually correlated with brief jerks seen on the EEG as EMG or excessive muscle artifact. They usually occur without detectable loss of consciousness and may be generalized, regional or focal on the EEG tracing.[3]. Epileptic myoclonus is an elementary electroclinical manifestation of epilepsy involving descending neurons, whose spatial (spread) or temporal (self-sustained repetition) amplification can trigger overt epileptic activity.[4].
Here we will go into the different disorders….. Differenent Disorders associated with Myolonic Seizures Lennox Progressive Jme Generalized tonic clonic seizures Generalized clonic Atyical seizure Atonic seizure
References[edit]
- Wyllie, Elaine (2006). The Treatment of Epilepsy. Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins. ISBN 0-7817-4995-6.