Hi..

My son Matty is going to the nuerologist for absent seisures/ as well as possibly ADHD/violent rages etc. He is 4 years old . When he was 2 and half he had a sleep study
done. The results were mildly abnormal/ 1.3 apneas per hour. The pulmonolist did not seem alarmed by this...i was going to show the nuerologist just to be safe. But I read a post of a child having 1.7 per hour and it was a concern. I don't know if i should be concerned or not. the absent seisure thing i read could be caused by hypoglocemia/ and i also read central apnea can also be caused by this. anyhow..i was just wondering if I should be concerned. I know the central apnea they say is rare...but he also has hyperactivity etc.
any insight would be great thanks
stacey

My five year old son started having both absense and complex partial seizures 8 months ago.  He is currently taking Depekene andZironton to control the seizures.  He also has sleep apnea - we believe.  He has massive tonsills that our ENT said that he will likely need to take out in a year or so because he snores loudly and is pretty chronically tired during the day even though he gets at least 11 hours of slep every night.  He also has enuresis - which is apparently linked to sleep disorders in children as well.   I have recently come upon a number of different studies which indicate that a deep sleep disorder can effect or even cause absense seizures.  Our Pediatric Neurologist does not seem to think that the two are linked - although he has booked our son into a sleep clinic for April.  Did you find any correlation between the seizures and hte sleep disorder?

G

Our Neurologist believes strongly that sleep can effect seizures both in the quantity and severity.  My son has intractable seizures, and we've actually stopped tweaking meds until we can get his sleep under control, becuase it hasn't helped any in the last 2 yrs.  He said it only makes sense, they do EEG's sleep deprived because it gives a greater chance of seizures, and these kids are living in a Sleep deprived status all the time.
Even if it is mildly abnormal, one of the studies I have found recently is that any apnea in kids is abnormal, especially if there are desats with it.  I can post the link if you want.
We also deal with Rage issues, and in some kids these can also be a type of seizure, which we suspect in Will too.
Hope that helps some,
Sarah J

Sarah,

Thanks for the info...that would be great to have the website or article..my son is going in the hospital for a 48 hour EEG to tell if he's having the seisures. And his pulmonoglist is going to stop in...and then we will decide if we are going to have another sleep study.

thanks
stacey

Here's the article i was talking about. It also has a ton of references on the bottom.  It mostly deals with what would be normal levels for the Sleep Study.

http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/full/125/3/872#T3

We just heard from our Neuro, we did a 12 hour EEG during our last sleep study to determine if seizures were a part of our problems.  The read on it is that none of his arousals or apneas are caused by seizure activity.

Maybe you could convince your Drs to do the Full EEG hookup if your son gets a new sleep study.  That way you would know for sure if they related to any of his problems.  

I hope the 48 hr EEG goes well, it's not something we have tried yet, but there is talk that it may be in our future.
Hope the article helps,
Sarah J

hi ya
matthew use to suffer from seizures but luckily turned out to b reflux related. he had a 48 hou EEG last dec to see if hes central apnoes wher related to seizures, also had sleep study with this. still dont know y matthew has the central prob. all hes 6 EEG'S and other neurological tests have come bk ok

good luck

Hi Sarah - thanks for your reply.  I would be very interested in the link if you could post it.  I have been doing some research and I have found a pediatric neurologist in with the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program in Florida - Dr. Paul R. Carney -  who seems to have done a lot of research on the effect of sleep disorders on seizures.  I have contacted his office and am waiting to hear back.  Have you heard of anyone who has managed get rid of seizures all together by correcting a sleep disorder?