EEG in the Diagnosis and Management of Epilepsy III

The course will cover the basic elements of the practice of EEG in its application to the diagnostic work up and the management of persons with suspected or already established epilepsy, adults and children.

It will be practice oriented and aimed at the general neurologist / paediatric neurologist / paediatrician dealing with - but not exclusively involved in - epilepsy care.

Subject material will emphasize the basic the role of the (standard) EEG in the diagnosis and management of epilepsy, common misconceptions (positive and negative) and potential pitfalls. Attention will be given to practical aspects, including the set-up of an EEG lab, minimal standards, electrodes, montages, provocation methods and the optimalisation of EEG requests and reports, specifically in the context of epilepsy.

Clinical aspects will include definitions of spike, spike and wave, sharp wave, etc., examples of various types of epileptiform activity, sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of specific EA patterns for diagnosis of epilepsy or specific epilepsy syndromes, the recognition of non epileptic sharp phenomena, benign variants & artefacts and the possible diagnostic significance of non specific EEG phenomena. Maturational aspects will be dealt with as will be the diagnostic significance of spontaneous or induced sleep.

The course will address the different kinds of EEG studies, extending from standard awake recordings to extensive long term EEG and video monitoring studies, with their specific requirements and indications but, since this is a basic course, intended to be relevant for day to day practice in average clinical circumstances, the emphasis will be on standard EEG, including sleep and the regular provocation methods in adults and children.

Some basic knowledge of EEG, both theoretical and practical, is a prerequisite since the technique of EEG recording and presentation and basic underlying neurophysiology will only be dealt with insofar as relevant for epilepsy.
The course, on completion, will enable the participants to improve the quality of the diagnostic approach in adults and children with epilepsy or other suspected paroxysmal disorders in the EEG lab of their clinics. It will help them to decide on the specific type of study, indicated for specific clinical problems. It will improve their competence and confidence in the recognition and differentiation of epileptic and other phenomena in the adult and paediatric awake and sleep EEG and their understanding of the clinical significance of these phenomena for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of epilepsy and epilepsy syndromes.

Course format

An introductory meeting as onsite start of all courses will take place during the 8th European Congress on Epileptology in Berlin in September 2008, inviting as many course participants as possible together with the course directors. This meeting will give an overview on the available courses and on practical aspects of participation in the course, including an introduction to the e-learning platform of the Virtual Epilepsy Academy. Attendance of this meeting is not mandatory for course participation. 

The course itself is divided into 12 units of 2 weeks each, beginning with an introduction to the VIREPA e-learning platform, followed by 11 learning units. The learning material (textbooks and references) is available for download. The tasks to be worked on in each unit to achieve credits should be solved within an active communication process among all participants, guided by the experts in the discussion fora on the e-learning platform. These tasks help to deepen the theoretically gained knowledge from the learning material and enable to transfer this knowledge to the clinical practice of each learner.

The participants are expected to spend about 8 hours (~4 hours/week) for individual study of the learning material, for reading/writing contributions in the forum and for the completion of the tasks.

• Minimum of 4 months of EEG training;
  
  
• 3 years of training in neurology, neuropediatrics, clinical neurophysiology, psychiatry or neurosurgery, or combinations of these.

• a signed confirmation of the neurology department on the 3 years of neurological or comparable training
  
  
• a signed confirmation of the (minimum of ) 4 months of EEG training
  
  
• CV
  
  
• list of publications
  
  

Duration: The course will start in the middle of October 2008 and last until March 2009. Personal Computer, Internet access
Operating system: Windows 98 / 2000 / NT / XP, Apple Mac OS X; Linux/Unix
Internet access: Modem, ISDN or DSL (recommended)
Browser: Internet Explorer 5.5 (and higher); Mozilla Firefox; Safari; Opera, Konqueror
Pdf- Reader (e.g. Adobe Acrobat)

Course Directors:

Dr. Walter van Emde Boas and Dr. Demetrios N. Velis, Heemstede, the Netherlands.

For application and further information, please contact:

Epilepsy Academy Office, Maraweg 21, D – 33617 Bielefeld, Germany

Tel.  +49 521 144 – 4310
Fax  +49 521 144 – 4311

Email: office@epilepsy-academy.org
URL: http://www.epilepsy-academy.org


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