Cortical myoclonus during IV thrombolysis for ischemic stroke

Abstract

We describe a patient with an acute middle cerebral artery ischemic stroke developing subtle involuntary movements of the paretic upper limb with cortical origin during rt-PA perfusion. Despite the multiple potential pathophysiological mechanisms for the relationship between thrombolysis and epileptic activity, seizures during this procedure are scarcely reported. Our hypothesis is that subtle and transient clinical seizures, like those described in our patient, may not be detected or are misdiagnosed as nonepileptic involuntary movements. We aimed to draw attention to the recognition challenge of this paroxysmal motor behavior, highlighting this clinical and neurophysiological identification using video recording and back-average analysis of the EEG.

Keywords

• Seizures
• Cerebral infarct
• Recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA)
• EEG
• Back-average analysis