ABSTRACT
Risk factors for and mechanisms of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) will be established by constructing individual Cluster Identifications (IDs) for SUDEP in drugrefractory patients, which will permit the development of a Classification System by defining risk factors, including central and peripheral autonomic nervous system changes, for SUDEP. Related or similar clusters will identify the types of risk factors for people with similar risk Cluster IDs. This chapter discusses autonomic characteristics that will be studied with several readily available methods and added to the Cluster IDs. Tilt table methods (Lathers et al. 1990, 1991, 1993; Lathers and Charles 1994a,b), the skin conductance response, and heart rate variability measured from electrocardiography (EKG) recordings will help to evaluate patients with greatest risk for sympathetic and parasympathetic activity changes before, during, and after seizures.
