Epilepsia. Official Journal of the International League Against Epilepsy

Abstract

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) is a neurological disorder in which patients suffer from frequent consciousness‐impairing seizures, broad neurocognitive deficits, and diminished quality of life. Although seizures in mTLE originate focally in the hippocampus or amygdala, mTLE patients demonstrate cognitive deficits that extend beyond temporal lobe function—such as decline in executive function, cognitive processing speed, and attention—as well as diffuse decreases in neocortical metabolism and functional connectivity. Given prior observations that mTLE patients exhibit impairments in vigilance, and that seizures ...

Abstract

Seizure prediction is feasible, but greater accuracy is needed to make seizure prediction clinically viable across a large group of patients. Recent work crowdsourced state‐of‐the‐art prediction algorithms in a worldwide competition, yielding improvements in seizure prediction performance for patients whose seizures were previously found hard to anticipate. The aim of the current analysis was to explore potential performance improvements using an ensemble of the top competition algorithms. The results suggest that minor increments in performance may be possible; however, the ...

Abstract

Objective

To profile European trends in pediatric epilepsy surgery (<16 years of age) between 2008 and 2015.

Methods

We collected information on volumes and types of surgery, pathology, and seizure outcome from 20 recognized epilepsy surgery reference centers in 10 European countries.

Results

We analyzed retrospective aggregate data on 1859 operations. The proportion of surgeries significantly increased over time (P < .0001). Engel class I outcome was achieved in 69.3% of children, with no significant improvement between 2008 and 2015. The proportion of histopathological findings consistent with glial ...

Abstract

Objectives

Focal cortical dysplasias (FCDs) are local malformations of the human neocortex and a leading cause of medically intractable epilepsy. FCDs are characterized by local architectural disturbances of the neocortex and often by a blurred gray‐white matter boundary indicating abnormal white matter myelination. We have recently shown that myelination is also compromised in the gray matter of dysplastic areas, since transcripts encoding factors for oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination are downregulated and myelin fibers appear fractured and disorganized.

Methods

Here, we characterized the gray ...

Abstract

Objective

Hippocampal sclerosis (HS) is the most common cause of drug‐resistant temporal lobe epilepsy, and its accurate detection is important to guide epilepsy surgery. Radiological features of HS include hippocampal volume loss and increased T2 signal, which can both be quantified to help improve detection. In this work, we extend these quantitative methods to generate cross‐sectional area and T2 profiles along the hippocampal long axis to improve the localization of hippocampal abnormalities.

Methods

T1‐weighted and T2 relaxometry data from 69 HS patients (32 ...

Abstract

Objective

In tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC)‐associated drug‐resistant epilepsy, the optimal invasive electroencephalographic (EEG) and operative approach remains unclear. We examined the role of stereo‐EEG in TSC and used stereo‐EEG data to investigate tuber and surrounding cortex epileptogenicity.

Methods

We analyzed 18 patients with TSC who underwent stereo‐EEG (seven adults). One hundred ten seizures were analyzed with the epileptogenicity index (EI). In 13 patients with adequate tuber sampling, five anatomical regions of interest (ROIs) were defined: dominant tuber (tuber with highest median EI), perituber ...

Abstract

Objective

Brain‐responsive neurostimulation (RNS System, NeuroPace) is used to treat medically refractory focal epilepsy and also provides long‐term ambulatory neurophysiologic data. We sought to determine whether these data could predict the clinical response to antiseizure drugs (ASDs).

Methods

First, newly added medications were identified in RNS System patients followed at a single epilepsy center. Daily detection rates including “episode starts” (predominantly interictal activity) and “long episodes” (often electrographic seizures) were compared before and after ASD initiation. Efficacy was determined from documentation of clinical ...

Abstract

Pyridoxine‐dependent epilepsy (PDE) is a genetic metabolic disease caused by inborn errors affecting vitamin B6 metabolism, which typically presents with neonatal seizures resistant to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Treatment with pyridoxine terminates seizures and prevents neurological decline. We describe a case in which the diagnosis was established at the age of 22 years. Birth and development were normal, but there was a history of three isolated tonic‐clonic seizures during childhood and adolescence. At the age of 18 years, she developed frequent focal motor ...