Prevalencia y tipología de las alteraciones electroencefalográficas en el trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad

Abstract

Introduction: the prevalence and clinical significance of electroencephalographic (EEG) alterations in patients with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADHD) has not been elucidated. Objectives: to estimate, in pediatric patients diagnosed with ADHD and no history of seizures, the prevalence and type of EEG abnormalities. Patients and methods: we selected during 2010 all patients with ADHD seen in a reference Neuropediatric Unit. In all cases an EEG was performed with partial sleep deprivation up to 5 hours and a record duration of 30 minutes by the International System (10/20). We estimated the prevalence and confidence interval of 95% (CI 95%) with the exact method. Results: we recruited a total of 62 cases, 45 boys (74.2%) and 6 girls (25.8%) with a mean age of 9.2 years (SD 2.6 years, range 6-14 years). Most were combined ADHD type (54.8%), followed by the type attention deficit (33.9%) and hyperactivity (11.3%). Only one case had EEG abnormalities (prevalence 1.6%, CI 95%: 0.04 to 8.7%). It was a male, 7 years old, with combined ADHD subtype who had left centrotemporal spikes.