what the hell does THIS mean?????

Hi,

Today I received the results of my EEG. My neurologist told me I have 'irregular slow wave activity in the left temporal region of the brain.'

Does anyone know what that means?

The neurologist told me that it isn't anything to be concerned about and it is quite common in migraine sufferers.

Can this be the reason for constant migraine aura or not?

google "slow wave activity in the left temporal region of the brain" ~ there's a lot of stuff that comes up.

Debbie

At least there is something objective that verifies that migs are a true disorder and not people seeking drugs. Maybe this with the new MRI evidence of brain lesions on some mig patients the problem may be taken much more seriously.

I think it means you're allowed to go shopping!

Hey, doctors orders right?

Yeh, don't worry about it Pat. All it means is that the shielding on one of the electrodes wasn't making a good connection and the machine was picking up the 60 cycle current from the flourescent lights. (Well, it sounded good anyway).

I read today that people that suffer from migraines are 80% at more risk for stroke and heart attack than those that do not suffer from migraines. However, it also said that if you exercise and eat healthy you can reduce that to almost normal. As for the Swiss Cheese brain, I have been told that my brain is like Swiss Cheese and I haven't noticed any problems except those that come with old age (four girlfriends instead of eight, more of them are good looking now that my eyesight is going bad).

Hal

That's interesting. Years ago I was labeled Left Temporal Lobe Epilespsy. Suspected that is. I was told the EEG showed some kind of activity in the left temporal lobe. Just thought I'd mention this. Oh, interestlngly, I didn't have migraines at that point. They began later...

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I think that I need to take this up with the neurologist during my next appointment because there is a lot of general info on the web about 'irregular slow wave activity', but it is difficult to determine what is and isn't related to my situation.

Gailgigi, I was particularly interested in your response. Has your doctor picked up any correlation between the EEG results from years ago and your current migraines?

Time will tell. The doctor I am seeing now is new to me. I have my second appointment next week. After reading your post I find this interesting too. I will mention though that I was having numerous neurological events back then. i.e. olfactory hulllucinations, sleep paralysis, nightmares etc. Yes, it was fun....

Actually, I have that too. My neurologist said that my brain waves go so slow when I have an aura that it's like I'm drunk (without the alcohol). This is one of the reasons I'm diagnosed with confusional migraines.

Angel

Hi --

A few years ago, when I had one of my many EEGs, I was told exactly the same thing: slow wave activity. I've asked several neurologists about this, and have always been told the same thing: by itself, it doesn't indicate any problems. One neurologist told me that if we were to randomly perform EEGs on enough people, we'd find this quite a lot; it's apparently (so far as I understand it) just part of the normal variation among people. Of course, you should definitely check up on this, but that's what I was told, anyway.

I do hate being told that something odd-sounding has turned up on a test, and then being told, "don't worry about it". Please, tell me WHY I shouldn't worry about it!

All the best,
-Zac
www.thedailymigraine.com