AUTOMATIC NOCTURAL SLEEP SAMPLING - USEFUL METHOD IN CLINICAL ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY

The clinical usefulness of obtaining a sleep record in epileptic patients is well established. In many clinical EEG laboratories, it is difficult to obtain records at night during the patient''s natural sleep. Most sleep EEG are recorded in the EEG laboratory during daytime and are induced by drugs. A 16 channel cable-telemetry system was described which automatically samples throughout the night the EEG of patients while sleeping in their room or ward without the aid of any medication. The electrodes and the cable-telemetry unit were applied to the patient in the afternoon and the system was checked. The patient was then instructed to plug the system into a wall box upon retiring and to disconnect it when he wakes up in the morning. The EGG samples were automatically written out during the night on one of the EEG machines located in the EEG laboratory to which the system is connected via special intra-hospital wiring. The duration of the samples and of the intervals separating them can be varied according to the circumstances. This method was very helpful in the investigation of epileptic patients, especially those considered for surgical treatment.