PURPOSE Evaluate the efficacy of carbamazepine in the treatment of idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE). METHOD The response of five patients with IGE, who experienced primarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures which were refractory to multiple antiepileptic drugs, is reported. RESULTS Carbamazepine controlled multiple seizure types and did not induce or increase the frequency of myocloni...

OBJECTIVES Although epileptic seizures are an infrequent feature of acute attacks of the neuropsychiatric porphyrias, there are no significant reports of porphyria in chronic epilepsy. This paper attempts to redress the balance. METHODS Three case reports, including detailed laboratory and molecular diagnostics. RESULTS Two patients with variegate porphyria and one with acute intermittent p...

Rasmussen Encephalitis is a rare, immune mediated disease characterized by refractory seizures, progressive neurological dysfunction and unilateral hemispheric atrophy. This disorder typically involves single cerebral hemisphere, affecting mainly children adolescents. We report case of in young girl who was admitted with complaints recurrent focal motor seizures involving right upper lower limb...

Seizures in some 30% to 40% of patients with epilepsy fail to respond to antiepileptic drugs or other treatments. While much has been made of the risks of new drug therapies, not enough attention has been given to the risks of uncontrolled and progressive epilepsy. This critical review summarizes known risks associated with refractory epilepsy, provides practical clinical recommendations, and i...

We report two adolescents with refractory seizure disorders in whom both epileptic and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) were recorded with intracerebral EEG. The ictal phenomenology of epileptic seizures (ES) and PNES, consisting of hypermotor attacks in the first patient and left-sided painful episodes in the second patient, proved remarkably similar in both cases, highlighting the dif...

New-onset seizures are frequent manifestations in patients infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). We describe the clinical and radiological findings in an 25yr old AIDS patient presenting with new onset seizures as the primary manifestation of cerebral toxoplasmosis and Non Tuberculous Mycobacterial [NTM] co-infection. Cranial computed tomography showed a subtle ventricular dilatatio...

Background The X-linked cyclin-dependent kinase like 5 (CDKL5/STK9) gene has been shown to be responsible for a severe encephalopathy condition characterized by early onset of epilepsy and severe developmental delay. CDKL5 mutations have been shown to be more frequent among female patients. Results Here we report a 6- month male patient, second child of a healthy non consanguineous in the Irani...

Purpose. The only consistent symptom of ring chromosome 20 syndrome (r(20)) is severe, refractory epilepsy often associated with a characteristic, although not pathognomonic, EEG pattern. Patients suffer from severe seizures with accompanying cognitive decline and frequent episodes of nonconvulsive status epilepticus (SE). Other features of this rare disorder, such as dysmorphic changes, mental...

Genetic epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+) is characterized by childhood-onset epilepsy syndrome. It involves febrile seizures and a variety of afebrile epileptic seizure types within the same pedigree with autosomal-dominant inheritance. Approximately 10% of individuals with GEFS+ harbor SCN1A, a gene mutation in one of the voltage-gated sodium channel subunits. Considerably less comm...

OBJECTIVE About one third of partial seizures are refractory to treatment. Several anticonvulsant drugs have entered the market in recent decades but concerns about intolerance, drug interactions, and the safety of the drug are notable. One of these new anticonvulsants is pregabalin, a safe drug with almost no interaction with other antiepileptic drugs. METHODS In this open label clinical tri...