Two patients, aged 6 and 7 months, with brain tumors who presented with infantile spasms and hypsarrhythmia are reported from Sapporo and Asahikawa Medical Universities, Japan. One had a hypothalamic hamartoma and the other a oligoastrocytoma with calcification in the right temporal lobe. ACTH controlled spasms and EEG seizure discharges. [1]
COMMENT. The authors cite 9 additional reports in the literature of brain tumors associated with infantile spasms. Focal brain lesions may underly the origin of infantile spasms.
Brain tumor was not listed as a cause of infantile spasms in an epidemiological study involving 57 patients treated in Sweden for the period 1987-1991. [2]