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Benign partial epilepsies in infancy.

Benign partial epilepsies are not rare in infancy and comprise two forms, although both are closely related. One is partial epilepsy with complex partial seizures (CPS) and the other one with secondarily generalized seizures (SGS). The most frequent site of seizure origin was in the temporal area in the former and central, parietal or occipital area in the latter. The former has not been well recognized because of subtle seizure manifestations and a favorable outcome. Its unique characteristics should be emphasized because it may be difficult to diagnose it unless we know its presence. Benign convulsions are also common in infancy. Most of them may belong to partial epilepsy with SGS, although confirmation with ictal EEG recording is necessary for accurate diagnosis. Some are familial and many of them seem to show an autosomal dominant pattern, but some seem to have autosomal recessive inheritance.

Age of Onset↗

Memory performance on the intracarotid amobarbital procedure as a predicator of seizure focus.

The intracarotid amobarbital procedure (IAP) was performed on 56 patients with intractable complex-partial epilepsy who were candidates for temporal lobectomy. Seizure focus was lateralized to one hemisphere, as determined by surface EEG recordings and MRI evidence of temporal lobe disease. IAP memory items were presented following injection of 125 mg of sodium amytal into the internal carotid artery. Verbal, Nonverbal, Design, Pictorial, and Total memory scores were calculated based on recall/recognition of memory stimuli following drug recovery. Poorer memory was observed in the hemisphere ipsilateral to seizure focus on all memory scores. The Total Memory Score was the best memory measure, correctly classifying the largest number of patients. Using optimal cut-off scores on this measure, 75% of the patients with left hemisphere seizure focus and 79% of the patients with right seizure focus were correctly classified. There was a definite tendency for the dominant hemisphere to outperform the non-dominant. This must be taken into account in arriving at optimal cut-off points.

Adolescent↗

A practical approach to uncomplicated seizures in children.

Uncomplicated seizures and epilepsy are common in infants and children. Family physicians should be aware of certain epilepsy syndromes that occur in children, such as febrile seizures, benign focal epilepsy of childhood, complex partial epilepsy, juvenile myoclonic epilepsy and video game-related epilepsy. Not all uncomplicated childhood seizures require neuroimaging or treatment. Febrile seizures, rolandic seizures and video game-related seizures are childhood epileptic syndromes that are typically not associated with brain structural lesions on computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, and are often not treated with anticonvulsant drugs. Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy does not require neuroimaging but does require treatment because of a high rate of recurrent seizures. Complex partial epilepsy often requires both neuroimaging and treatment. Although seizures are diagnosed primarily on clinical grounds, all children with a possible seizure (except febrile seizures) should have an electroencephalogram. Interictal EEGs may be normal. Computed tomography has demonstrated abnormalities in 7 to 19 percent of children with new-onset seizures. The yield of magnetic resonance imaging for specific childhood seizure types is not known, but it is the preferred modality of neuroimaging for many clinical presentations. Most children's seizures treated with anticonvulsants are controlled by the first drug selected. The value of "therapeutic' serum drug levels is questionable in the management of uncomplicated childhood seizures.

Anticonvulsants↗

Benign epilepsy of children with complex partial seizures following febrile convulsions.

Among the partial epilepsies with complex partial seizures (CPS) following febrile convulsions (FC), there is an idiopathic epilepsy with extremely benign outcome, characterized by: 1) no past history suggesting brain insult, no underlying brain lesions, no neurological abnormalities, no mental retardation; 2) a high incidence of a positive family history of FC or benign epilepsy; 3) no past history of prolonged febrile convulsions; 4) EEG spike foci other than anterior temporal ones; 5) CPS easily controlled with full recovery.

Adolescent↗

Utility of scalp-recorded ictal electroencephalograms in childhood epilepsy with complex partial seizures.

BACKGROUND: The authors evaluated the usefulness of scalp-recorded ictal electroencephalograms (EEG) in diagnosing the epileptogenic area in epilepsy with complex partial seizures. METHODS: The authors analyzed the ictal EEG of 395 seizures in 43 patients with complex partial seizures. Based on EEG findings the patients were classified according to the degree of localization of their onset areas. The results were then compared with neuroimaging findings. RESULTS: Only 10 patients fell into the category 'discrete', meaning that all the onset areas (as measured by ictal EEG) were localized in the same lobe of the same hemisphere. Seven patients were categorized as 'lateralized', meaning that all the onset areas were clearly lateralized in the same hemisphere but without consistent localization. Eleven patients were classified as 'localized', meaning that the onset area were localized simultaneously in bilateral same lobes, or changed consistently from one lobe in one hemisphere to the same lobe in the opposite hemisphere. The onset area could not be defined in 15 patients and these were categorized as 'not defined'. No patient who underwent seven or more ictal recordings was categorized as discrete. However, when confined only to those patients in whom over 75% of the ictal recordings showed the same onset area, there was a high correlation between the epileptogenic lesions detected by ictal EEG and those detected by neuroimaging techniques. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study indicate that ictal EEG recordings are useful for determining the epileptogenic area in epilepsy with complex partial seizures, provided that more than 75% of the ictal recordings show the same ictal onset area.

Brain↗

Vagus nerve stimulation in refractory epilepsy: SPECT activation study.

UNLABELLED: Left-sided vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an efficacious treatment for patients with refractory epilepsy. The exact mechanism of action remains to be elucidated. This study investigated the acute effects of initial VNS in patients with refractory complex partial epilepsy with or without secondary generalization (complex partial seizures [CPS] +/- SG) by means of a perfusion activation study with SPECT. METHODS: Twelve patients (mean age, 32.2 +/- 10.2 y; age range, 12-47 y) with a mean duration of CPS +/- SG of 19.8 +/- 10.0 y (range, 5-33 y) received VNS. All patients were considered unsuitable candidates for resective surgery because of nonlocalizing findings on presurgical evaluation. VNS efficacy was evaluated for patients with at least 4-mo follow-up. VNS-induced regional cerebral blood flow alterations were studied by a (99m)Tc-ethyl cysteinate dimer activation study with a single-day split-dose protocol before and immediately after an initial stimulation. Images were acquired on a triple-head camera with fanbeam collimators. After coregistration to a standardized template, both a semiquantitative analysis using predefined volumes of interest and a voxel-by-voxel analysis of the intrasubject activation (statistical parametric mapping) were performed. RESULTS: Seizure-frequency changes ranged from 100% decrease to 0% after VNS. The semiquantitative analysis revealed a consistent decrease of activity in the left thalamus (ratio stimulator on/off = 0.94 +/- 0.04; P = 0.005). These results were concordant with the voxel-by-voxel analysis in which a significant deactivation in the left thalamus was found with spread to the ipsilateral hippocampus. There was no statistically significant correlation between initial VNS-induced thalamic hypoperfusion and seizure reduction at maximum follow-up. CONCLUSION: Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that acute VNS reduces seizure onset or propagation through inhibition of the thalamic relay center. Differences with limited H2(15)O PET data may be associated with temporal effects caused by a stimulation-induced local hemodynamic response and need further investigation. SPECT allows study of cerebral physiopathologic effects of vagus nerve electrostimulation in complex partial epilepsy.

Adolescent↗

[Therapeutic and pharmacological monitoring of individual monotherapy of epilepsy with hexamidine].

The treatment with primidone alone of 53 epileptic patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizures, partial attacks with elementary symptomatology, and partial fits with complex symptomatology removed them completely in 75, 64.2, and 36.9% of the patients, respectively. The number of attacks was decreased as a result by 50% and over in 90, 78.6, and 73.7% of the patients, respectively. The attainment of such high efficacy of the monotherapy (called by the author intensive in contrast to routine or inadequate therapy carried out, as a rule, in standard doses) appeared possible only under the conditions of individualization of the drug doses which ranged within 250-2500 mg/day. The concentration of phenobarbital, the main end metabolite of primidone, in the blood serum of patients, in whom the attacks were completely arrested and who developed no clinical side effects with no toxic action on the internal organs, ranged from 14 to 59.1 mg/l. In partial fits with complex symptomatology, primidone appeared least effective for those types of fits in the treatment of which it was viewed as most adequate.

Adolescent↗

A pilot study on benign partial epilepsy in children with complex partial seizures.

In a review of 145 children with partial onset epilepsy, the authors were able to determine a focus of children whose complex partial seizures (CPS) ran a benign course, who had no identifiable lesion on scanning and whose EEG focus was not fixed, but tended to shift. The authors suggest that a benign form of CPS in children can be recognised.

Adolescent↗

Awareness and responsiveness during partial seizures.

We examined the impairment of consciousness during partial seizures (PS) arising from various brain sites according to the operational definition of the international classification, i.e., altered awareness and/or responsiveness. The subjects were 142 patients who underwent intracranial EEG evaluation and subsequent resective surgery. First, the patients were examined to determine whether they usually had been partially or completely aware of their seizures. Second, spontaneous habitual seizures that had been videotaped with simultaneous intracranial EEG recording were reviewed to determine responsiveness and recall during ictal behavioral alterations. In all, 114 patients were partially or completely aware of their seizures. Patients who tended not to be aware of their seizures were those with frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) with extensive epileptogenic regions on the language nondominant side and those with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with seizure origin in the lateral cortex of the language dominant side. Of the 21 patients with FLE, 88 with TLE, and 4 with occipital lobe epilepsy, 7, 22, and 2 patients responded to stimuli during the seizure, respectively, but only 11 of the patients with FLE and none of the other patients could recall the stimuli applied during the behavioral alterations. Bilateralization of seizure discharges correlated with impaired responsiveness. According to the International Classification, about half of patients with FLE had only simple partial seizures (SPS) and the other patients had complex partial seizures (CPS). Altered awareness and/or responsiveness occurred in most habitual partial seizures in our subjects. The term "complex" appears to be useful in clinical practice, although the contents of ictal behavior and the site or side of seizure origin are not implied.

Adolescent↗

[Prognostic value of data from clinical, EEG and neuroimaging assessment in epilepsy with complex partial seizures].

INTRODUCTION: The well-known etiology, length of active epilepsy, partial or mixed seizure types and high frequency of seizures before treatment relate with a worst prognosis for seizures control. We have attempted to prove these factors in our study. METHOD: We analyzed the electro-clinical characteristics, evolution and etiology of seizures in 151 patient with several type of partial epilepsy. Subsequently, we related the estimated improvement with diverse variables. RESULTS: A significant statistically difference appeared as for seizures frequency at onset, existing among 15% to 44.3% more patient in which the frequency descended to more of 50% when the initial frequency was more than one to the month. Upon relating the improvement with the MR anomaly also appeared significant difference: there was between 7.9% and 73.7% more patient with hypersignal on long TR sequences in the group that did not decrease the frequency of their crisis to more than 50%.

Adolescent↗

A review of the preclinical pharmacology of tiagabine: a potent and selective anticonvulsant GABA uptake inhibitor.

We review the neurochemical and behavioral profile of the selective gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) uptake inhibitor, (R)-N-(4,4-di-(3-methylthien-2-yl)but-3-enyl) nipecotic acid hydrochloride [tiagabine (TGB), previously termed NNC 05-0328, NO 05-0328, and NO-328], which is currently in phase III clinical trials for epilepsy. TGB is a potent, and specific GABA uptake inhibitor. TGB lacks significant affinity for other neurotransmitter receptor binding sites and/or uptake sites. In electrophysiological experiments in hippocampal slices in culture, TGB prolonged the inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSP) and inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSC) in the CA1 and CA3 produced by the addition of exogenous GABA. In vivo microdialysis shows that TGB also increases extracellular GABA overflow in a dose-dependent manner. Together these biochemical data suggest that the in vitro and in vivo mechanism of action of TGB is to inhibit GABA uptake specifically, resulting in an increase in GABAergic mediated inhibition in the brain. TGB is a potent anticonvulsant agent against methyl-6,7-dimethyoxy-4-ethyl-B-carboline-3-carboxylate (DMCM)-induced clonic convulsions (mice), subcutaneous pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced tonic convulsions (mice and rats), sound-induced convulsions in DBA/2 mice and genetically epilepsy-prone rats (GEPR), and electrically induced convulsions in kindled rats. TGB is partially efficacious, against subcutaneous PTZ-induced clonic convulsions, and photically induced myoclonus in Papio papio. TGB is weakly efficacious in the intravenous PTZ seizure threshold test and the maximal electroshock seizure (MES) test and produces only partial protection against bicuculline (BIC)-induced convulsions in rats. The overall biochemical and anticonvulsant profile of TGB suggests potential utility in the treatment of chronic seizure disorders such as generalized clonic-tonic epilepsy (GTCS), photomyoclonic seizures, myoclonic petit mal epilepsy, and complex partial epilepsy.

Animals↗

Seizures in the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe, one of the most celebrated of American storytellers, lived through and wrote descriptions of episodic unconsciousness, confusion, and paranoia. These symptoms have been attributed to alcohol or drug abuse but also could represent complex partial seizures, prolonged postictal states, or postictal psychosis. Complex partial seizures were not well described in Poe's time, which could explain a misdiagnosis. Alternatively, he may have suffered from complex partial epilepsy that was complicated or caused by substance abuse. Even today, persons who have epilepsy are mistaken for substance abusers and occasionally are arrested during postictal confusional states. Poe was able to use creative genius and experiences from illness to create memorable tales and poignant poems.

Diagnosis, Differential↗

The anticonvulsant effects of vitamin E: a further evaluation.

Vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol) has proven to be a useful adjunct to anticonvulsant drugs in clinical studies. Improvement has occurred even in patients with complex partial seizures, which are often resistant to drug therapy. In animals, vitamin E is effective against ferrous chloride seizures, hyperbaric oxygen seizures and penicillin-induced seizures. It has failed, however, to show anticonvulsant effects in the standard animal models used for drug screening--the maximal electroshock and threshold pentylenetetrazol tests. The present experiments were designed to further explore the anti-epileptic actions of vitamin E in animals. Three models related to complex partial epilepsy were used: 1) the development of amygdala-kindled seizures; 2) the development of electrically-induced status in kindled animals; and 3) the development of kainic-acid seizures. Vitamin E failed to produce significant effects in any of the models.

Animals↗

Secondary hypogammaglobilinemia after use of carbamazepine: case report and review.

Immunologic disorders related to anticonvulsant therapy have been described in the last three decades, including cellular and humoral alterations that result in recurrent infections; however, the physiopathologic mechanisms are not completely understood. This report describes a patient with complex partial epilepsy and hypogammaglobulinemia while in treatment with carbamazepine, with significant improvement in clinical signs and laboratory tests after substitution to sodium valproate. The authors stress the importance of clinical and laboratory evaluation of patients in continuous anticonvulsant therapy, including immunoglobulins levels and peripheral blood evaluations.

Anticonvulsants↗

Oculogyric crisis induced by carbamazepine.

A 32-year-old man with mental retardation and uncontrolled complex partial epilepsy receiving carbamazepine (CBZ) and divalproex sodium (VPA), developed frequent episodes of forced upward gaze after increase in the daily VPA dosage. CBZ dosage was decreased, with prompt resolution of symptoms. The upward gaze problem recurred several months later. CBZ dosage was decreased further with subsequent resolution of symptoms. Therefore, the oculogyric crisis (OGC) appeared to be induced by CBZ.

Adult↗

In vitro quantitative autoradiography of [3H]-L-deprenyl and [3H]-PK 11195 binding sites in human epileptic hippocampus.

Distribution of the enzyme monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) and the peripheral benzodiazepine binding site (omega 3 site) was studied by quantitative autoradiography using [3H]L-deprenyl and [3H]PK 11195, two tentative glial markers, as ligands. Sclerotic hippocampus from seven patients who had had anterotemporal lobe resection because of intractable complex partial epilepsy were investigated and compared with postmortem hippocampus from three nonepileptic controls. A significantly higher degree of L-deprenyl and PK 11195 binding was observed in the epileptic cases. The increased binding of both ligands correlated to extent of neuronal loss, but only PK 11195 showed correlation to degree of gliosis. We concluded that both ligands could provide useful markers for quantitating the degree of gliosis in pathologic states such as epilepsy. They may be applicable in future in vivo studies with positron emission tomography (PET).

Adult↗

Vagal nerve stimulation does not unkindle seizures.

The purpose of this study was to investigate a mechanism of action for the effect of vagal nerve stimulation on reducing seizures in patients with complex partial epilepsy. The hypothesis tested was that vagal nerve stimulation has an antikindling effect on epilepsy. The databases of two large clinical trials (E03, E05) were accessed, and statistical methods were applied using logarithmic transforms and regression analysis. Two parameters--duration of a patient's epilepsy before entering the clinical trial and the patient's seizure density before entering the clinical trial--were used as markers of subsequent seizure control during vagal nerve stimulation. In general, there was not a good fit to the regression lines, and the slope of the lines did not conform to the hypothesis. The hypothesis that vagal nerve stimulation may unkindle epileptic seizures was not supported.

Epilepsy, Complex Partial↗

Point and distributed current density analysis of interictal epileptic activity recorded by magnetoencephalography.

Equivalent current dipole (ECD) analysis and fully three-dimensional distributed source solutions have been applied to interictal multichannel magnetoencephalographic recordings of a patient with complex partial epilepsy (CPE). Averaged signals were used. At certain instances ECD solutions could be found with a very high cross-correlation coefficient between the measurements and the field, produced by the current dipole solution, typically in excess of 0.97. At these instances a highly localized distribution, very close to the ECD location, was obtained from the distributed source analysis. The ECD solution started to move when the distributed source solution began to develop activity at more than one centre. This clearly contrasted with the way the activity of the distributed source solutions changed, which turned out to be highly stable. Stringent selection criteria for using the different solutions therefore seem mandatory, especially in identifying pathological areas and volumes of the human brain.

Adult↗