Little is known about the ethnic and racial differences in the prevalence of generalized and focal epilepsy among patients with non-acquired epilepsies. In this study, we examined epilepsy classification and race/ethnicity in 813 probands from sibling or parent-child pairs with epilepsy enrolled in the Epilepsy Genome/Phenome Project (EPGP). Subjects were classified as generalized epilepsy (GE)...

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy is the most common form of idiopathic generalized epilepsy with onset at puberty or late teenage years. About 80-90% of patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy respond to appropriate antiepileptic treatment and achieve seizure freedom, and about 15% of patients become intractable. Valproic acid, levetiracetam, lamotrigine, topiramate and zonisamide are used as firs...

BACKGROUND Seizures are common in dogs and can be caused by non-epileptic conditions or epilepsy. The clinical course of newly diagnosed epilepsy is sparsely documented. The objective of this study was to prospectively investigate causes for seizures (epileptic and non-epileptic) in a cohort of dogs with new-onset untreated seizures, and for those dogs with newly diagnosed epilepsy to investiga...

PURPOSE Women in the United States who have epilepsy give birth to about 20000 newborns every year. Because seizures during late gestation and delivery may seriously affect the fetus, and because primary generalized tonic-clonic (GTC) seizures may occur during labor and delivery in 1-2% of women with epilepsy, we attempted to define the rate, risks, and causes of seizures during labor and deliv...

PURPOSE To evaluate the magnitude of subclinical balance dysfunction in adult epilepsy patients and to assess the relative contribution of different variables to balance impairment. METHODS Balance performance was evaluated by computerized dynamic platform posturography (CDPP) in 25 adult patients following a generalized tonic-clonic seizure (GTCS) and in 11 healthy subjects. RESULTS The GT...

OBJECTIVES Information about epilepsy in mitochondrial disorders is scarce although a number or syndromic and non-syndromic mitochondrial disorders frequently manifest with focal or generalized seizures. Aim of the review was to describe epilepsy in syndromic and non-syndromic mitochondrial disorders with epilepsy as a dominant or collateral feature of the phenotype. METHODS Literature search...

In this interesting paper, the authors have successfully quantified the predictive capabilities of the single-blind, Phase IIa photosensitivity model. Most importantly, their conclusion stresses that potential AEDs showing suppression of the pathological generalized epileptogenic reaction to Intermittent Photic Stimulation (IPS) also show efficacy in phase III double-blind placebo-controlled AE...

Objective: To investigate possible immunological humoral correlates in newly diagnosed adult-onset generalized tonic-clonic epilepsy among Iranian patients before and after sodium valproate treatment.   Patients and Methods: 72 adult patients with newly diagnosed idiopathic generalized tonic-clonic epilepsy were recruited. Serum antinuclear antibodies (ANA), anti-cardiolipin antibodies (aCL), a...

The authors review the literature for cases fulfilling the criteria for the proposed idiopathic generalized epilepsy syndrome (IGE) of absence status epilepsy described by Genton et al. (2008). Difficulties arising in diagnosing such cases are remarked, and possible overlapping with other proposed IGE syndromes is discussed.

Ictal EEG may be of great benefit in facilitating accurate classification of the underlying seizure disorder in some patients and thus guiding further investigation and management. Ictal recordings in patients with generalized epilepsies are protean in their manifestations and yet may have considerable overlap. Classification is only possible through careful synthesis of all available clinical ...