BACKGROUND During the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, many patients avoided hospital visit because of fear of infection. Antiepileptic drug (AED) withdrawal is a risk factor for seizure recurrence. Therefore, seizure control during the SARS outbreak is a good model for examining the impact of drug withdrawal in seizure control. METHODS All seizures experienced by each ...

PROBLEM Menstrual disorders, reduced fertility and sexual problems seem to be more frequent in women with epilepsy than in the general population. Most investigations concerning menstrual disturbances in epilepsy patients, however, are small and based on selected materials. We therefore wanted to investigate the frequency of menstrual disturbances in a large, unselected population of epilepsy p...

Although monotherapy in epilepsy treatment is frequently advocated, this is not based on studies with equal drug loads. This study was performed to investigate the experimental background of polytherapy with standardized drug loads. Dose-dependent effects on grip strength, accelerod performance, and spontaneous behavior of rats was used to study the effect of combining valproate and ethosuximid...

PURPOSE Recent reports have documented the appearance of Brugada-type ST elevation in cases of overdose of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). However, little is known about changes on electrocardiographs (ECGs) during AED use at therapeutic doses. AEDs may cause Brugada-type ST elevation or J-wave-like intraventricular conduction delays through an ion channel-blocking effect. In the present study, we ...

AIMS Although use of antithrombotic agents is recommended after ischaemic stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA), long-term outcome of secondary prevention between stroke subtypes has not yet been explored. METHODS AND RESULTS We used data from the Korean Stroke Registry (KSR), a nationwide, multicentre, prospective registry for acute stroke patients. Patients with acute ischaemic stroke ...

PURPOSE To estimate the risk of seizures while awake in pure sleep epilepsies - a long follow-up study. METHODS Fifty five patients (60% male), with pure sleep epilepsy were followed up for at least ten years. Patients younger than 18 years of age were excluded. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of seizures while awake, after a period of 10 years or longer suffering from pure sleep seiz...

BACKGROUND/AIM Cognitive dysfunction in epileptic patients may develop due to the neurophysiological changes related to seizures or antiepileptic drugs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cognitive dysfunction in epileptic patients under antiepileptic drug therapy by the aid of event related potentials. METHOD P300 latencies were obtained from Fz, Cz and Pz electrod positions from both...

Poor glycemic control is related to an increased risk of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). This study investigated the association between medication adherence and the risk of ESRD in patients with newly diagnosed diabetes mellitus.In this population-based cohort study, we used the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) to identify 559,864 patients with newly diagnosed or trea...

PURPOSE This study aimed to describe seizures and their therapy among Swedish adolescents, aged 13-22, with active but uncomplicated epilepsy. METHOD The adolescents answered questionnaires (158/193). Data were also obtained from medical records. RESULTS Epileptic seizure types could be specified in 92.1% of the cases. Predominant types were Primary Generalised Tonic-Clonic Seizures and Par...