Hypsarrhythmia

As hypsarrhythmia ( gr: hypsi " height" and arrhythmia "lack of rhythm " ) is, in neurology called an EEG pattern in which an epileptic activity in the form of a continuous sequence irregularly high, slow delta waves with alternating ( desynchron ) occurring interspersion of short duration peak potentials ( "spikes ") and / or steep sequences ( Sharp waves ) shows. Duration and localization ( focal or multifocal ) are unbalanced, the EEG picture looks chaotic, variations are the rule: " The hypsarrhythmia never occurs as a rhythmic and well-organized pattern on " ( Gibbs & Gibbs, 1952).

The hypsarrhythmia has diagnostic relevance of the West syndrome ( BNS epilepsy) and was first described in 1952 by Gibbs and Gibbs.