EEG Findings in Diffuse Lewy Body Disease and Parkinson´S Disease with Dementia

Abstract

Objectives: Electroencephalography can still reveal a variety of focal abnormalities in different neurological diseases. EEG could represent an easy and economical tool to differentiate parkinsonisms when compare to neuroradiological studies. We want to report the EEG findings in a serie of diffuse lewy body disease and demented Parkinson´s disease patients of our unit of movement disorders, in a prospective and open label study. Methods: 30 consecutive subjects were enrolled, 10 patients with criteria for diffuse lewy body disease, 10 patients with criteria for Parkinson’s disease (demented) and 10 normal subjects. The MMSE, the GDS/FAST staging scale, the UPDRS and the Schwab and England scales and NPI-Q scale were administered. A 36-channel video-QEEG recording and Spectral EEG analysis were determined in patients and subjects. Results: Diffuse lewy body disease patients showed a mean of occipital frequency of 7.7 ± 0.3 Hz (P: 0.04), 70% of them showed temporal lobe amplitude’s asymmetries (P: 0.04) and 90% showed a Frontal Intermittent Delta Activity (P: 0.02). Parkinson’s disease patients showed a mean of occipital frequency of 8.8 ± 0.8 Hz, 20% of them showed temporal lobe asymmetries and 10% showed Frontal Intermittent Delta Activity. Frontal Intermittent Delta Activity and temporal lobe amplitude’s asymmetries in Diffuse lewy body disease patients were statistically significant compared to the normal subjects, while the Parkinson’s disease patients showed no statistical differences from normal subjects. Conclusions: Electroencephalographic findings in Diffuse Lewy Body Disease patients could represent an electrophysiological marker that might aid in distinguishing Diffuse Lewy body disease patients from Parkinson’s disease patients, further studies are needed to validate our results Keywords: