Epilepsia. Official Journal of the International League Against Epilepsy

Abstract

Objective

Pediatric drug‐resistant epilepsy (DRE) is associated with poor health‐related quality of life (HRQOL). Achieving seizure control, however, does not improve HRQOL in all children. This study sought to evaluate whether (1) baseline caregiver and family factors are associated with child HRQOL at 1‐year follow‐up over and above epilepsy characteristics, treatment, and seizure outcome; and (2) baseline family factors moderate the association between seizure outcome and child HRQOL at 1‐year follow‐up.

Methods

This multicenter longitudinal cohort study recruited 152 children with DRE who ...

Abstract

Objective

Overexpression of the drug transporter P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp) is thought to be involved in drug‐resistance in epilepsy by extrusion of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). We used positron emission tomography (PET) and the P‐gp substrate radiotracer (R)‐[¹¹C]verapamil (VPM) together with the third‐generation P‐gp inhibitor tariquidar (TQD) to evaluate P‐gp function in individuals with drug‐resistant epileptogenic developmental lesions.

Methods

Twelve healthy controls (7 male, median age 45, range 35‐55 years), and two patients with epileptogenic developmental lesions (2 male, aged 24 and 62 years) underwent VPM‐PET scans before ...

Abstract

Objective

Seizure recurrence following surgery for temporal lobe (TL) epilepsy may be related to extratemporal epileptogenic foci, so‐called temporal‐plus (TL+) epilepsy. Here, we sought to leverage whole brain connectomic profiling in magnetoencephalography (MEG) to identify neural networks indicative of TL+ epilepsy in children.

Methods

Clinical and MEG data were analyzed for 121 children with TL and TL+ epilepsy spanning 20 years at the Hospital for Sick Children. Resting‐state connectomes were derived using the weighted phase lag index from neuromagnetic oscillations. Multidimensional associations between patient ...

Abstract

In January 2019, a new plant‐derived purified cannabidiol preparation, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, became commercially available for patients ≥2 years old with Lennox‐Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome. Among our patients who were prescribed the new cannabidiol formulation, we observed several cases of thrombocytopenia and therefore embarked on this study. We conducted a single‐center systematic chart review of all pediatric patients (<21 years old) who were prescribed cannabidiol from January to August 2019. We evaluated salient features of the ...

Abstract

The success rate from first time in man to regulatory approval of central nervous system (CNS) drugs is lower than the overall success rate across all therapeutic indications (eg, cardiovascular, infectious diseases). To understand the reasons for drug‐candidate failure and to capture trends in antiseizure drug (ASD) design, we have analyzed the physicochemical and biopharmaceutical properties of marketed ASDs in comparison with new ASDs in development. Our comparative analysis included molecular weight (MW), logP, polar surface area (PSA), the “Lipinski ...