Extreme spindles: A distinctive EEG pattern in Mycoplasma pneumoniae encephalitis

Abstract

Extreme spindles are diffuse, continuous, high voltage, frontocentral, 8- to 15-Hz spindles thought to be an unusual exaggeration of normal sleep spindles.1 Historically, this EEG pattern was described and termed extreme spindles by Gibbs and Gibbs in 1962.1 Extreme spindles typically occur in children aged 1 to 12 years. They have been associated with such conditions as cerebral palsy, residual brain damage, undefined infections, infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy, Menkes’ kinky-hair syndrome, and congenital muscular dystrophy.2–4 There is one case report of extreme spindles in a 4-year-old Japanese boy during a subacute phase of mycoplasma encephalitis.5 We report a previously healthy child with an acute Mycoplasma pneumoniae encephalitis whose early EEG demonstrated extreme spindles before the pneumonia diagnosis was confirmed by mycoplasma antibodies. An 11-year-old boy presented with a new onset seizure. He was in good health when he …