Epilepsia Partialis Continua as Presenting Manifestation of AIDS: A Rarity

Abstract

Seizures, most commonly generalized tonic-clonic, are common in known human immune deficiency virus (HIV) sero-positive patients, and they usually have a focal lesion on brain imaging. However, it is very unusual to see a patient with no premorbid illness presenting with epilepsia partialis continua (EPC) and then being detected HIV seropositive with an Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)-defining illness. We report the case of a teenaged boy with no past significant history or known high-risk behavior who presented with recurrent focal seizures of 5 days' duration, EPC, and encephalopathy. His electroencephalogram showed periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (PLEDS), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed abnormal signal changes in the right parieto-occipital cortex and thalamus, both as yet unreported in cytomegalovirus (CMV) encephalitis, which was diagnosed by the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis.