[The evaluation of paroxysmal events in neonates and infants].

Background and purpose: Differential diagnosis of neonatal and infantile seizures based only on inspection poses a challenge even for specialists. Aims - To investigate the evaluations of neonatal and infantile paroxysmal events based only on inspection. Research question - Is there any difference in the opinion of neonatologists, paediatric neurologists and neurologists about the assessment of common paroxysmal events in infancy?

Methods: Video recordings about paroxysmal movements of 15 neonates or infants (aged 2 days- 5 months) were displayed for 47 paediatric neurologists, 35 neonatologists and nurses working in Neonatal or Perinatal Intensive Care Units and 43 neurologists. They had to decide without knowing the past medical history or EEG results whether events presented were epileptic or nonepileptic in nature.

Results: Answers of neonatologists and paediatric neurologists were correct in 67% of cases (824/1230), no significant difference was found between their results. The largest uncertainty was in the judgement of discrete hand movements and very rapid clonus with epileptic origin, they were judged correctly by only one third of participants. The result of neurologists was only slightly, but not significantly different from that of paediatric neurologists.

Conclusion: In most cases, the correct diagnosis of neonatal and infantile paroxysmal events requires video-EEG recording. No significant difference was revealed between the evaluation of neonatologists and paediatric neurologists about the differential diagnosis of movements. The ongoing cooperation of paediatric neurologists and neurologists going back to several decades facilitates the shaping of a common perspective.