MONDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Children's viewing of three-dimensional television (3D-TV) does not increase epileptiform paroxysms, as measured by electroencephalography (EEG), or provoke seizures, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society, held from Dec. 2 to 6 in Baltimore.
Herbert Plischke, M.D., from the University of Munich in Germany, and colleagues examined the effects of 3D-TV in children with a possible risk of unknown epilepsia, or known epilepsy, with or without seizures. A total of 100 children (61 with and 39 without epilepsy), underwent a 20 minute sequence of routine EEG, including photo stimulation, followed by 15 minutes of 3D-TV viewing. Two independent professionals visually examined the EEGs.
The investigators found that, during routine EEG, nine patients had photo paroxysmal reactions (PPR) under photo stimulation. Positive PPR under photo stimulation occurred in two females with no history of seizures. One of the patients with epilepsy, who had seizures three to four times a day, had a seizure while watching 3D-TV. Viewing 3D-TV did not provoke seizures, nor did it increase epileptiform paroxysms in any of the other examined patients. The frequency of epileptiform paroxysms was reduced during 3D-TV in three cases with generalized epilepsy. Symptoms like nausea, headache, and feeling of dizziness were seen in 20 and 15 percent of patients during 3D-TV and photo stimulation, respectively. Most patients had a significant increase in lambda-waves during 3D-TV.
"The chance for people with undiagnosed epilepsy to have an epileptic seizure provoked by 3D-TV is unlikely," the authors write.
Abstract No. 2.100
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