Quantitative analysis of EEG background activity in patients with rolandic spikes

Objective: The aim was to compare the background activity, through quantitative EEG analysis, of patients with rolandic spikes and normal age-matched controls. Material and methods: Twenty-one channel EEG of 23 children with rolandic spikes and 39 normal children, with ages ranging from 7 to 12 years, were submitted to quantitative analysis (FFT) of discharge-free epochs. Patients and controls were divided in groups according to age (7–9 and 10–12 years old). Delta, theta, alpha and beta frequency ranges were compared between groups for all electrode positions. Results: Comparing normals, the 7–9 years old group showed power reduction in the alpha and beta ranges. Comparing patients and normal age-matched groups, the patients showed power increase, at all frequency ranges in the 7–9 years old group and at delta and theta frequency ranges in the 10–12 years old group. Conclusions: Our findings agree with recent evidences that these children may differ from normal (besides the eventual occurrence of seizures); but they also suggest that these differences can be related to immaturity and not necessarily related to the epileptiform discharge.