Video-electrographic and clinical features in patients with ictal asystole

Abstract

Ictal asystole is a rare feature of patients with focal epilepsy. Delayed loss of tone is distinctly uncommon in patients with temporal lobe seizures, but may inevitably occur in patients with ictal asystole after a critical duration of cardiac arrest and cerebral hypoperfusion. Further cardiac monitoring in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and a history of unexpected collapse and falls late in the course of a typical seizure may be warranted and can potentially help to prevent sudden unexplained death in epilepsy.