If you suspect you have epilepsy, it is important to get an accurate diagnosis when you go to the doctor. Because this disorder can be mistaken for a vast array of other conditions, doctors use four different ways to diagnose the condition.
How epilepsy is diagnosed is by a doctor using four important diagnotic methods. A doctor needs to get a client’s neurological history, give the client an exam, an EEG, and an MRI.
Neurological history is documented so that the doctor can determine if the client has had seizures in the past, and to get detailed information about them. It is important for the doctor to get descriptions of the seizures from other people, because the person suffering from seizures may not remember what kind of behaviors they have displayed during a seizure.
Doctors can usually identity a seizure through third-party descriptions because seizures are random, have specific things that occur when a seizure starts and ends, and because people act in certain ways when having a seizure that make seizures easy to identity.
As far as an exam is concerned, a doctor will give a physical exam to help identity specific parts of the body that could be malfunctioning, which could be the culprit behind the seizures.
When a doctor gives a patient an EEG (electroencephalagram), they do so to measure brainwaves, or electrical activity in the brain. If a person is having a seizure, specific parts of the brain being measured can indicate abnormal electrical activity–which could indicate the presence of seizure activity. If a person’s neurological history corresponds with what the EEG measures, then a diagnosis of epilepsy can usually be made.
Doctors can also give a patient an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) to analyze the physical structures of the brain in a 3D format. This method can be used to help a doctor see the brain to make sure other things aren’t causing seizures, like tumors or brain trauma, for example. Doctors can also give a CT scan because it is less expensive, however the images produced are a lot poorer in quality.
Brain Structure Malformations That Cause Seizures
Though people may worry that their seizures are caused by a brain tumor, brain tumors only cause seizures in a very small percentage of people. A CT scan can also detect when someone has had a stroke. Damaged brain cells that result from a stroke can lead to abnormal electrical activity in the brain, or seizures.
Any type of abnormal tissue in the brain can agitate or irritate surrounding brain cells, which can cause seizures. Some of these abnormal structures can include a mass of cells in the brain called a “birthmark,” or dysplasia. Other abnormalities could be blood vessels, like blood vessels that have had an aneurysm, or arterio-venus malformations.
First, an accurate diagnosis needs to be made. This means that if you suspect that you or someone you love is having seizures, you need to seek medical treatment as soon as possible.
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