Epilepsy research
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Review
Reflex seizures and reflex epilepsies: old models for understanding mechanisms of epileptogenesis.
Reflex seizures and epilepsies represent an ancient human model to understand basic mechanisms of epilepsy. The increase of light stimulation makes this issue extremely actual and interesting. In addition, a lot of observations show the frequent occurrence of provoked seizures in malformations of cortical development and in recently defined conditions such as familial or sporadic lateral temporal epilepsy. Advances in morphological and functional neuroimaging techniques, and the possibility of their fusion with EEG (e.g., fMRI-EEG co-registration) offer a unique non-invasive opportunity to investigate cortical areas and brain networks involved in cerebral functions and in epileptic discharges.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Prevalence of epilepsy in the 15 years and older in Benin: a door-to-door nationwide survey.
Estimate the prevalence of epilepsy in the 15 years and older in Benin. ⋯ This nationwide study is the first in West Africa. It provides a low prevalence of epilepsy in Benin compared to previous studies performed in this country and in neighbouring countries. Restricted-area studies are often motivated by the presence of specific risk factors and could overestimate the prevalence, while large-scale studies could underestimate other subtle forms of epilepsy.
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It is unknown whether white matter abnormalities exist in childhood absence epilepsy (CAE), a syndrome of idiopathic epilepsy (IGE). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can noninvasively quantify white matter integrity. This study used DTI to investigate abnormal changes in white matter of untreated CAE patients. ⋯ The results showed white matter integrity impairment in the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuit of drug-naïve CAE patients. These abnormalities in white matter may be related to increased cortical excitability and cause cognitive, linguistic, and behavioral/emotional deficits both during and between seizures.
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Epilepsy is a chronic condition that may be associated with several other diseases. Psychiatric comorbidities are highly prevalent and depression is the most common type of psychiatric comorbidity in people with epilepsy. The beneficial effects of exercise for people with epilepsy have been increasingly reported, including reduction of seizure susceptibility, improvement of quality of life and reduction of depression. In this regard, we propose in this article the potential role of physical exercise to minimize depression in people with epilepsy. ⋯ The significance of such a relationship has a marked impact on the development and implementation of appropriate coadjutant treatments to improve functional outcomes and quality of life in people with epilepsy.
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Multicenter Study
A cross-sectional MRI study of brain regional atrophy and clinical characteristics of temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis.
Applying a cross-sectional design, we set out to further characterize the significance of extrahippocampal brain atrophy in a large sample of 'sporadic' mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE+HS). By evaluating the influence of epilepsy chronicity on structural atrophy, this work represents an important step towards the characterization of MRI-based volumetric measurements as genetic endophenotypes for this condition. ⋯ Our findings confirm that multiple brain regions beyond the hippocampus are involved in the pathogenesis of MTLE+HS. IPIs are an important factor influencing the rate of regional atrophy but our results also support a role for processes related to epilepsy chronicity. The consequence of epilepsy chronicity on candidate brain regions has important implications on their application as genetic endophenotypes.