Studio dell'eccitabilita corticale in un paziente con epilessia parziale e mioclono corticale

Transcranial stimulation technique was used to analysed the excitability of motor cortex in a patient with focal epilepsy and cortical myoclonus originating from the right motor cortex. In epileptic motor cortex (50%) the motor threshold to single magnetic stimuli and not to electrical ones was higher then the contralateral side; a short lasting silent period (50 ms) was elicited by magnetic shocks in the epileptic cortex; using the double shocks technique a reduced cortico-cortical inhibition was evident. These findings are consistent with an asymmetry in cortical excitability; an impaired inhibition in the epileptic motor cortex is supposed as the underlined mechanism.