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Background: Ictal bradycardia (IB) and asystole (IA) represent a rare but potentially harmful feature of epileptic seizures. The aim of this study was to study IB/IA in patients with sleep-related hypermotor epilepsy (SHE). Methods: We retrospectively included cases with video-EEG-confirmed SHE who attended our Institute up to January 2021. We reviewed the ictal polysomnography recordings focusing on ECG and identified cases with IB (R-R interval ≥ 2 s or a ≥10% decrease of baseline heart rate) and IA (R-R interval ≥ 4 s). Results: We included 200 patients (123 males, 61.5%), with a mean age of 42 ± 16 years. Twenty patients (20%) had focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) on brain MRI. Eighteen (out of 104 tested, 17.3%) carried pathogenic variants (mTOR pathway, n = 10, nAchR subunits, n = 4, KCNT1, n = 4). We identified IB/IA in four cases (2%): three had IA (mean 10 s) and one had IB. Three patients had FCD (left fronto-insular region, left amygdala, right mid-temporal gyrus) and two had pathogenic variants in DEPDC5; both features were more prevalent in patients with IB/IA than those without (p = 0.003 and p = 0.037, respectively). Conclusions: We identified IB/IA in 2% of patients with SHE and showed that this subgroup more frequently had FCD on brain MRI and pathogenic variants in genes related to the mTOR pathway.
Muccioli et al. (Tue,) studied this question.