A reduction in GABAergic neurotransmission has been put forward as a pathophysiological mechanism for human epilepsy. However, in slices of human epileptogenic neocortex, GABAergic inhibition can be clearly demonstrated. In this article we present data showing an increase in the functional lability of GABAergic inhibition in epileptogenic tissue compared with nonepileptogenic human tissue. We h...

UNLABELLED Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is suggested as a localizing technique of epileptogenic areas in drug-resistant seizure patients due to intracraneal lesions. A male 42-year-old patient who begins at 26 with partial complex drug-resistant seizures is put forward. MRI shows a 9 mm diameter lesion located in left superior temporal gyrus which seems compatible with cavernoma. Both conventio...

BACKGROUND Epilepsy is a chief communal health problem. Antiepileptic drugs only provide symptomatic treatment. Walnut Kernels (WK) have high concentrations of phenolic compounds, which have beneficial effects on human health because of their antioxidant and anti-atherogenic properties. The present study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of WK supplementation for the prevention of experimen...

Purpose of review. To present an overview of the recent findings in pathophysiology and management of epileptic seizures in patients with gliomas. Recent findings. Low-grade gliomas are the most epileptogenic brain tumors. Regarding pathophysiology, the role of peritumoral changes (hypoxia and acidosis, blood–brain barrier disruption, increase or decrease of neurotransmitters and receptors) are...

Objective(s) Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) regulate epileptiform activity and produce a sustained pro-epileptogenic action within the hippocampal slices. In the present study, we investigated the effect of nAChRs on evoked glutamatergic synaptic transmission in area CA3 and CA1 of rat hippocampal slices to identify possible excitatory circuits through which activation of nAChRs pr...

The concept of epileptogenic zone is defined as a large area of cortical neurons arranged in concentric circles of variable degrees of epileptogenicity. This is particularly so in frontal lobe epilepsy since the interictal and ictal epileptic abnormalities are poorly localized, often absent and at times misleading in terms of localization. In temporal lobe epilepsy, the epileptogenic zones may ...

PURPOSE To evaluate the prevalence of nonlesional focal epilepsy in an adult epilepsy clinic and its refractoriness to antiepileptic drug therapy. BACKGROUND Focal epilepsy is frequently, but not always, associated with structural epileptogenic lesions identifiable on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS We analyzed the data from all patients evaluated at an adult epilepsy clinic from ...

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are angiographically occult and consist of a honeycomb-like, low-pressure bed of ectatic vasculature with no intervening neural tissue. Although most cases are sporadic, there are several familial forms. A hemosiderin rim frequently exists from repeated microhemorrhage, leading to reactive cortical gliosis. Because there are no neurons within a cavernous ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can predict epileptogenic tubers by measuring apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), fractional anisotropy, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity in both tubers and perituberal tissue in pediatric patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) undergoing epilepsy surgery. METHODS We retrospectively selected 23 consecutive patient...

We investigated the diagnostic performance of 18F-FDG PET and ictal (99m)Tc-HMPAO SPET in pediatric temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Twenty-one pediatric TLE patients were enrolled in this study. Their diagnoses were confirmed by histology and post-surgical outcome (Engel class I or II). The patients' ages were 18 or younger (15+/-3 years). Of the 21 patients, 21 patients underwent 18F-FDG PET sca...