Friday, April 30, 2004

Thanks be to Toller for this:

Chuang YC, Lin TK, Lui CC, Chen SD, Chang CS.

Department of Neurology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung,
Taiwan, ROC.


We report a 41-year-old woman with complex reflex epilepsy in which seizures
were induced exclusively by the act of tooth brushing. All the attacks occurred
with a specific sensation of sexual arousal and orgasm-like euphoria that were
followed by a period of impairment of consciousness. Ictal EEG
demonstrated two events of epileptic seizure that were provoked after tooth
brushing for 38 and 14 seconds, respectively. The interictal EEG showed
epileptiform discharges over the right anterior temporal region and interictal
single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan showed relative
hypoperfusion in the uncus of right temporal lobe. Brain magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) revealed right hippocampal atrophy. We suggest that tooth-
brushing epilepsy, especially with sexual ictal manifestations, may provide
insight into the cerebral pathophysiology at the right temporolimbic structure.

No comments: