Weather patterns and occurrence of epileptic seizures

BMC Neurology

Table 2 Mean numbers of patients with seizures on particular days in vicinity of days with a particular upper level weather type, synoptic situation, or biometeorological forecast

	N	Seizure mean two days later	Seizure mean one day later	Seizure mean	Seizure mean one day before
Upper level weather types
R	235	0.57 ± 0.73	0.57 ± 0.77	0.57 ± 0.77	0.63 ± 0.82
NG	121	0.58 ± 0.69	0.63 ± 0.82	0.59 ± 0.79	0.58 ± 0.76
GNW	286	0.63 ± 0.72	0.59 ± 0.76	0.59 ± 0.76	0.49 ± 0.74
NWS	121	0.62 ± 0.69	0.62 ± 0.66	0.62 ± 0.66	0.55 ± 0.63
GSW	104	0.61 ± 0.86	0.63 ± 0.80	0.63 ± 0.70	0.61 ± 0.76
SWS	287	0.64 ± 0.88	0.67 ± 0.89	0.68 ± 0.89	0.68 ± 0.79
T	96	0.67 ± 0.86	0.47 ± 0.82	0.47 ± 0.72	0.55 ± 0.86
ULC	108	0.54 ± 0.69	0.63 ± 0.75	0.63 ± 0.76	0.62 ± 0.82
NS	24	0.54 ± 0.66	0.46 ± 0.66	0.46 ± 0.66	0.63 ± 0.71
NES	17	0.53 ± 0.51	0.59 ± 0.51	0.59 ± 0.50	0.36 ± 0.79
SS	39	0.66 ± 0.71	0.49 ± 0.64	0.49 ± 0.64	0.67 ± 0.77
SES	18	0.33 ± 0.59	0.39 ± 0.69	0.39 ± 0.69	0.67 ± 1.03
WS	128	0.65 ± 0.82	0.69 ± 0.75	0.69 ± 0.75	0.80 ± 0.85
ES	15	0.60 ± 0.63	0.67 ± 0.81	0.67 ± 0.81	0.60 ± 0.83
p-value		0.982	0.577	0.720	0.042
Surface synoptic situations
Low pressure field	279	0.68 ± 0.84	0.63 ± 0.83	0.62 ± 0.76	0.69 ± 0.84
High pressure field	743	0.58 ± 0.78	0.58 ± 0.79	0.58 ± 0.79	0.54 ± 0.74
Non-gradient pressure field	457	0.61 ± 0.76	0.69 ± 0.78	0.65 ± 0.79	0.64 ± 0.79
Transition state	121	0.59 ± 0.80	0.56 ± 0.69	0.60 ± 0.71	0.68 ± 0.82
p-value		0.305	0.316	0.501	0.012
Biometeorological forecast
Favourable	911	0.63 ± 0.79	0.61 ± 0.79	0.59 ± 0.78	0.57 ± 0.78
Unfavourable	689	0.59 ± 0.78	0.61 ± 0.77	0.62 ± 0.79	0.65 ± 0.79
p-value		0.290	0.993	0.699	0.029

Values, arithmetic means±SD; p-values obtained using Kruskall-Wallis test when > 2 categories, Mann-Whitney U-test when 2 categories; p < 0.05 written in bold letters

ISSN: 1471-2377