ABSTRACT

Although ischemic stroke is known to be related to epilepsy, the relationship between epilepsy and microbleeds has not been fully described. In this study, we aimed to find out the relationship between the microbleeds and epilepsy after stroke.

The patients diagnosed with epilepsy after stroke that were followed up as stroke and epilepsy clinic patients were retrospectively determined between March 2018–March 2020. The patients who underwent SWI scans in the MRI were included in this study. All the demographic information and the vascular risk factors were noted. Early onset epilepsy is defined to be in seven days after stroke and late onset epilepsy is defined to be after seven days according to International League Against Epilepsy. The microbleeds were divided into three groups by a radiologist who was blind to the patients: lobar, deep and posterior fossa localization. Also, the amount and the severity of the hemorrhages were noted.

In this study, 36 patients were included. The mean age was 68.3±1.4 (min: 26–max: 88). There were 16 female (44.4%) and 20 male (55.6%) patients. The most common risk factor was hypertension (n=28) and 18 patients had early onset epilepsy, whereas the other 18 patients had late onset epilepsy. The most common infarction was seen in the middle cerebral artery region (n=28 77.8%). Five patients had posterior cerebral artery infarcts (13.9%) and three patients had lenticulostriate artery territory infarcts (8.3%) and 22 patients had microbleeds. However, the type of epilepsy did not differ significantly between the microbleeds and non-microbleeds group (p=0.63).

Although microhemorrhages were found in epilepsy patients (61.1%), there was no strong connection with epilepsy after stroke. To find out the effects of microhemorrhages on epilepsy after stroke, we need further multicenter studies.

Keywords: Poststroke epilepsy, seizure, cerebral microbleeds