Epilepsy & behavior : E&B
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Aug 2006
Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the Chinese version of the self-report health-related quality of life measure for children and adolescents with epilepsy.
The aim of this validation study was to evaluate the internal consistency (internal reliability) and test-retest reliability (external reliability) of the Chinese version of the self-report health-related quality of life measure for children and adolescents with epilepsy. ⋯ The Chinese version of the health-related quality of life measure for children and adolescents with epilepsy demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Further studies are required to study other psychometric properties such as construct validity and factor analysis.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Aug 2006
ReviewFinding the missing link between ictal bradyarrhythmia, ictal asystole, and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.
Basic science studies of the human brain have supported the cortical representation of cardiovascular responses, including heart rate variability. Clinical observations of ictal bradyarrhythmia may be mechanistically explained by the influence of the central autonomic network, although the localization and lateralization issues need to be considered in the light of patterns of seizure spread, hand dominance, and presence of lesions. ⋯ The missing links are (1) clinical evidence of common factors shared by patients with ictal bradyarrhythmia and patients who die from SUDEP, (2) evidence of arrhythmia as a risk factor for SUDEP from epidemiological studies, and, (3) determination of the importance of ictal bradyarrhythmia in SUDEP with respect to other proposed mechanisms including apnea and intrinsic cardiac abnormalities. There remains a need to review the seizure mechanisms in cases of SUDEP and to step up the amount of concurrent ECG/intracranial EEG analysis in both ictal bradyarrhythmia and SUDEP cases.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Aug 2006
The Portuguese version of the Epilepsy Surgery Inventory (ESI-55): cross-cultural adaptation and evaluation of psychometric properties.
The purpose of this study was to develop a Portuguese version of the Epilepsy Surgery Inventory (ESI-55) and to assess its psychometric properties. Sixty patients with temporal lobe epilepsy related to unilateral mesial temporal sclerosis who underwent presurgical evaluation at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP) formed the sample for this study. The psychometric properties of the ESI-55 included: reliability, validity, and responsiveness. ⋯ There was a high correlation between seizure frequency and ESI-55 domains for clinical variables (ANOVA, P<0.005). Surgical treatment in this series improved health-related quality of life in the seizure-free group in three domains--Health Perception (1.24), Emotional Well-Being (1.32), and Energy/Fatigue (1.48)-as reflected by the standard response mean and the effect size of the sample. Our results support the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the ESI-55 as a measure of health-related quality of life.