Abstract
self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes, previously considered benign focal childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes show clinical signs of involvement of Rolandic areas, mainly lower area, which may affect the planning and execution of motor sequences. This study aimed to evaluated oral praxis in children with self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes and compare to the age-matched control group. This was a descriptive study with 74 children with self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes, with the classical forms according to International League Against Epilepsy, and between 4 and 15 years of age, selected from the child neurology outpatient clinic of the Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, and 239 age-matched and educational level-matched (convenience sampling) control children. All children were submitted to the battery of oral volitional movements, which consisted of 44 tests for oral movement (tongue, lip, cheek, jaw, and palate) and 34 phonemes and consonant cluster tasks, with simple and sequenced oral movements. The mean age and standard deviation (SD) of children with epilepsy was 9.08 years (SD 2.55) and of controls 9.61 years (SD 3.12). The results showed significant differences between the groups with a poorer performance of children with epilepsy compared to children without epilepsy in simple and particularly in sequenced movements. These findings can be attributed to the genetically determined immaturity of cortical structures related to motor planning in children with self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes.
Highlights
Self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (SLCT) or Rolandic epilepsy, previously considered benign focal childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes, is the most common form of self-limited or drug-responsive focal epilepsy[1,2,3]
The participants were divided into two groups: Group 1 — the experimental group consisted of 74 children with typical SLCT, according to ILAE7, and group 2 — the control group consisted of 239 children without epilepsy
The present study evaluated simple and sequenced oral gestures in children with SLCT and in the control group without abnormalities in speech production
Summary
Self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (SLCT) or Rolandic epilepsy, previously considered benign focal childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes, is the most common form of self-limited or drug-responsive focal epilepsy[1,2,3]. It represents almost 15% of all childhood epilepsy cases and 13 to 25% of new-onset epilepsy in children, beginning between 2 and 12 years of age (peak incidence around 6 to 7 years)[2,4,5], and predominantly in males[6,7]; it is not associated with an underlying structural lesion[8]. Oro-pharynx-laryngeal and unilateral facial manifestations (motor and/or sensitive) suggest that the focal pathology is related to the inferior Rolandic cortex, where the face and oropharynx are represented[10]
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