Objective: To determine the correlation between frontal intermittent rhythmic delta activity (FIRDA) and the clinical and radiological correlates in children.
Methods: Retrospective review of the EEG and imaging studies of 37 children with documented FIRDA.
Results: FIRDA was associated with multiple neurological conditions and not necessarily with midline lesions. Patients with abnormal neurological exam had a longer FIRDA duration (average 9.5 seconds) compared to children with no reported abnormal examination (average of 6.5 seconds). FIRDA ranged from 2 to 2.5 Hz (n = 15), 3 Hz (n = 17) and from 1.5 to 3 Hz (n = 5) and there was a significant association between the duration of FIRDA and abnormal laboratory tests (p. < 0.05, Student's T test).
Conclusion: FIRDA was not correlated with midline brain lesions in children. FIRDA may be a non specific oscillation of an unhealthy pediatric brain with or without seizures.