Sino-auricular heart block as an epileptic manifestation: A case report
Phizackerley PJ, Poole EW, and Whitty CW (1954) Sino-auricular heart block as an epileptic manifestation: A case report. Epilepsia 3: 89–91.
Abstract: The clinical manifestations of the so-called “temporal lobe epilepsies” are protean. There is however clear-cut and increasing evidence that visceral symptoms are an important and frequent part of the picture (Moulder et al., 1954). Amongst these, cardiovascular changes are recorded though they are usually sub- jective phenomena such as palpitations, and objective evidence of cardiac dysrhythmias in a clearly established epileptic setting is rare. The following case is thought worth recording because episodes of complete cardiac arrest, demonstrated electrocardiographically as due to siauricular block, were preceded by attacks of angor animi and clouding of consciousness, and a focus of abnormal activity in the right temporal region was shewn on electroencephalography. We have been unable to find any detailed report of cardiac arrest as a primary epileptic manifestation, though Kinnier-Wilson (1928) amongst others, states that this can occur as a visceral variant. The evidence for regarding the sineauricular block as part of an epileptic discharge in this case, was, in our opinion, convincing.