Infantile spasm, a childhood epilepsy with rather poor prognosis, is characterized by myoclonic seizures, a hypsarrythmic EEG pattern and developmental retardation. It was first described by William West in his own son in 1841. Various hypotheses have been proposed concerning the pathophysiology of infantile spasm. These include brain stem dysfunction due to pathology in serotonergic neurons, interaction between the brain stem and a focal or diffuse cortical abnormality, interaction between cortical-subcortical abnormalities and immunological dysfunction [1–4].
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