Cryptogenic or idiopathic partial epilepsies with auditory seizures

Introduction In the last few years, the importance of genetic factors in the par-tia] epilepsies has emerged. Familial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLFE, Berkovic, 1996; Candes, 1998) has been recently described, although it seems to be genetically heterogeneous. Ottman has recently described a family with autosomal dominant partial epilepsy where auditory hallucinations were common and linkage to chromosome lOq was found. Purpose To identify patients with cryptogenic partial epilepsy (CPE) with auditory semeiology. Materials and methods Patients with partial seizures and, at least initially, auditory semeiology (acoustic illusions and/or hallucinations), without clinical and neuroradiological signs of structural lesions of CNS were selected. Clinical-EEC examinations and pedigree analyses were performed. Results Among over 1500 patients in a period of fifteen years, 16 patients with CPE with auditory semeiology have been found. The pedigree analysis of 8 patients shows at least one relative with epilepsy (but none with auditory seizures). Significant differences in the epileptic syndrome among patients with and without familarity were not found. Discussion The CPE with auditory seizures is quite rare. The presence of familiarity in 50% of our cases confirms the probable role of a genetic predisposition.