BACKGROUND Complex partial seizures (CPS) may present with milder symptoms mimicking normal function of an adult person making the diagnosis delayed or often missed. There is a need for an in-depth training in epileptology to understand the various pattern of electro-clinical presentation of CPS. Ability to predict seizure control on first diagnosis can be very useful in the management of patie...

Despite significant advances in epileptology, the differential diagnosis of epileptic and pseudoepileptic seizures continues to be a considerable challenge. The problem becomes even more complicated when epileptic and psychogenic pseudoepileptic seizures coexist in the same patient. Appropriate psychological measures may be helpful in the diagnosis and may improve knowledge about aetiological f...

Epilepsy is the most common chronic neurological condition in childhood. In this paper we present results of analysis of a comparative survey, using data derived from 34-item questionnaire completed by 2 groups of children with epilepsy from the whole Czech Republic. The first group (1 217 children) was invited to complete the questionnaire in 1995, the second group (612 children) in 2004. The ...

Functional MRI was used to evaluate factors influencing hemispheric dominance for language in 34 children suffering from intractable focal epilepsy due to left hemispheric lesion of pre(n = 19) or postnatal (n = 15) origin. Nineteen children (56%) exhibited pronounced left-hemispheric language dominance. Significant co-activation of the right hemisphere or a complete language shift to this hemi...

The efforts of ILAE for providing a standardized classifi cation and terminology of epileptic seizures and epilepsy syndrome; the international classifi cation of epileptic seizures in 1981 and international classifi cation of epilepsy syndromes and epilepsies in 1989, have provided outstanding achievement in promoting epilepsy care, research, and education over the past decades. However, furth...

This thesis describes the method of EEG-correlated fMRI and its application to patients with epilepsy. First, an introduction on MRI and functional imaging methods in the field of epilepsy is provided. Then, the present and future role of EEG-correlated fMRI in the investigation of the epilepsies is discussed. The fourth chapter reviews the important practicalities of EEG-correlated fMRI that w...

To what degree does the so-called 'initial hit' of the brain versus chronic epilepsy contribute towards the memory impairment observed in chronic temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients? We examined cross-sectional comparisons of age-related regressions of verbal learning and memory in 1156 patients with chronic TLE (age range 6-68 years, mean epilepsy onset 14 +/- 11 years) versus 1000 healthy c...

Organization informed its experts who were working on a glossary of terms used in epileptology, of its wish that an International Classification of the Epilepsies be published to supplement the International Classification of Epileptic Seizures already established by the Commission on Terminology of the International League against Epilepsy. Since the International League against Epilepsy had f...

As a consultant neurologist and honorary clinical lecturer at a Belfast hospital, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, James Morrow is known to many in the fields of neurology and epileptology. In his spare time he has added to his repertoire an English Literature and Philosophy degree and now his first novel. Set in IRA-riddled Belfast, Sláinte (Irish for cheers—pronounced Slaunch-e)...

A big advance in epileptology has been the recognition of syndromes with distinct aetiology, clinical and EEG features, treatment and prognosis. A prime and common example of this is rolandic epilepsy that is well known by the general paediatricians for over 50 years, thus allowing a precise diagnosis that predicts an excellent prognosis. However, rolandic is not the only benign childhood epile...