MRI findings in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures: Prevalence, distribution, and classification of the findings. A single tertiary epilepsy center experience.

Objective: Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) mimic epileptic seizures without electroencephalographic correlation. Although classified as psychiatric disorders, their neurobiological or structural basis remains unclear. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and characteristics of MRI abnormalities in patients with PNES and those with comorbid epilepsy, compared to the general population, to enhance radiological evaluation and management.

Evaluation of self-stigma in patients with epilepsy: Validation of the self-stigma scale to Spanish (ESSS-S).

Objective: The Epilepsy Self-Stigma Scale (ESSS) has been developed in Japan for patients with epilepsy (PWE). We aimed to validate the scale in Spanish and examine its validity and reliability.

Methods: The transcultural adaptation of the ESSS was conducted using translation and back-translation, along with pilot testing and an expert panel review.

Gamma amplitude is coupled to opposed hippocampal theta-phase states during the encoding and retrieval of episodic memories in humans.

Computational models and in vivo studies in rodents suggest that the emergence of gamma activity (40-140 Hz) during memory encoding and retrieval is coupled to opposed-phase states of the underlying hippocampal theta rhythm (4-9 Hz). However, direct evidence for whether human hippocampal gamma-modulated oscillatory activity in memory processes is coupled to opposed-phase states of the ongoing theta rhythm remains elusive. Here, we recorded local field potentials (LFPs) directly from the hippocampus of 10 patients with epilepsy, using depth electrodes.

Testing an Adapted Auditory Verbal Learning Test Paradigm for fMRI to Lateralize Verbal Memory in Patients with Epilepsy.

Background And Purpose: fMRI is a noninvasive tool for predicting postsurgical deficits in candidates with pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy. We aimed to test an adapted paradigm of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test to evaluate differences in memory laterality indexes between patients and healthy controls and its association with neuropsychological scores.

Materials And Methods: We performed a prospective study of 50 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and 22 healthy controls.

Influence of personality profile in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy on quality of life following surgical treatment: A 1-year follow-up study.

The objectives of this study are to determine the influence of personality profile in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy on quality of life (QoL) after surgical treatment and compare the results with a non-surgical control group at the 1-year follow-up. We conducted a prospective, comparative, controlled study, including 70 patients suffering from drug-resistant epilepsy. Demographic, psychiatric, neurological, and psychological data were recorded at the baseline and at the 1-year follow-up.

Interpretable surface-based detection of focal cortical dysplasias: a Multi-centre Epilepsy Lesion Detection study.

One outstanding challenge for machine learning in diagnostic biomedical imaging is algorithm interpretability. A key application is the identification of subtle epileptogenic focal cortical dysplasias (FCDs) from structural MRI. FCDs are difficult to visualize on structural MRI but are often amenable to surgical resection.

Event-based modeling in temporal lobe epilepsy demonstrates progressive atrophy from cross-sectional data.

Objective: Recent work has shown that people with common epilepsies have characteristic patterns of cortical thinning, and that these changes may be progressive over time. Leveraging a large multicenter cross-sectional cohort, we investigated whether regional morphometric changes occur in a sequential manner, and whether these changes in people with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) correlate with clinical features.

Methods: We extracted regional measures of cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical brain volumes from T1-weighted (T1W) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans collected by the ENIGMA-Epilepsy consortium, comprising 804 people with MTLE-HS and 1625 healthy controls from 25 centers.

Atlas of lesion locations and postsurgical seizure freedom in focal cortical dysplasia: A MELD study.

Objective: Drug-resistant focal epilepsy is often caused by focal cortical dysplasias (FCDs). The distribution of these lesions across the cerebral cortex and the impact of lesion location on clinical presentation and surgical outcome are largely unknown. We created a neuroimaging cohort of patients with individually mapped FCDs to determine factors associated with lesion location and predictors of postsurgical outcome.

COVID-19 prevalence and mortality in people with epilepsy: A nation-wide multicenter study.

Background: To assess the prevalence, severity, and mortality of COVID-19 in people with epilepsy (PWE) and evaluate seizure control in PWE during and after COVID-19.

Methods: Retrospective, observational, multicenter study conducted in 14 hospitals. Medical records of randomly selected PWE followed at neurology outpatient clinics were reviewed.

Personality changes in patients suffering from drug-resistant epilepsy after surgical treatment: a 1-year follow-up study.

Objective: To determine changes in dimensions of personality in a sample of patients suffering from drug-resistant epilepsy at the 1-year follow-up following surgery, compared to non-surgically treated controls.

Methods: We conducted a prospective comparative controlled study, including drug-resistant epilepsy surgery candidates. Demographic, psychiatric, neurological, and psychological data were recorded.

Volumetric and shape analysis of the hippocampus in temporal lobe epilepsy with GAD65 antibodies compared with non-immune epilepsy.

Glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 antibodies (anti-GAD65) have been found in patients with late-onset chronic temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). No prior neuroimaging studies have addressed how they affect hippocampal volume and shape and how they relate to cognitive abnormalities. We aimed to investigate both brain structure and function in patients with isolated TLE and high anti-GAD65 levels (RIA ≥ 2000 U/ml) compared to 8 non-immune mesial TLE (niTLE) and 8 healthy controls (HC).

Psychotic symptoms in drug resistant epilepsy patients after cortical stimulation.

Purpose: The use of invasive EEG (iEEG) recordings before epilepsy surgery has increased as more complex focal epilepsies are evaluated. Psychotic symptoms (PS) during iEEG have been scarcely reviewed. We aim to report our series of patients with psychotic symptoms (PS) brought about by cortical stimulation (CS) and to identify triggers.

Psychiatric disorders in patients with resistant temporal lobe epilepsy two years after undergoing elective surgery. A longitudinal study.

Purpose: Psychiatric morbidity in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is frequent and negatively affects patients' life quality. Surgery is the procedure of choice when treating seizures, although the effects on psychiatric disorders remain unclear. We evaluate the effect of surgery on psychiatric disorders in patients with TLE two years after the intervention, to then shed light on how these are related to anxiety and depression symptoms, and Interictal Dysphoric Disorder (IDD).

The emerging role of the advanced practice epilepsy nurse: A comparative study between two countries.

Aims And Objectives: The aim of the study was to compare advanced practice in epilepsy nurses in Spain and United Kingdom, identifying differences in the domains of standard advanced practice.

Background: Europe has recently faced the challenge of providing high-quality care for patients with epilepsy, a disease that generates many health demands. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom, advanced practice nursing is well established and could serve as a guide for implantation in countries where it is still in development, as is the case of Spain.

Epilepsy and lockdown: A survey of patients normally attending a Spanish centre.

Background: Lockdown due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic became a challenge to maintain care for patients with epilepsy; we aimed to find out how the pandemic affected them.

Methods: We sent an online 22-item questionnaire to patients from our outpatient clinic, a reference centre in Spain for drug-resistant epilepsy, inquiring about the effects of lockdown, from March to May 2020.

Results: We sent the survey to 627 patients; 312 (58% women) sent a complete response and were included.

Emergency implementation of telemedicine for epilepsy in Spain: Results of a survey during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Unlabelled: Teleneurology in Spain had not been implemented so far in clinical practice, except in urgent patients with stroke. Telemedicine was hardly used in epilepsy, and patients and neurologists usually preferred onsite visits. Our goal was to study impressions of adult and pediatric epileptologists about the use of telemedicine after emergent implementation during the new coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

External trigeminal nerve stimulation for drug resistant epilepsy: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: External trigeminal nerve stimulation (ETNS) is an emergent, non-invasive neurostimulation therapy delivered bilaterally with adhesive skin electrodes. In previous studies, ETNS was associated to a decrease in seizure frequency in patients with focal drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE).

Objective: To determine the long-term efficacy and tolerability of ETNS in patients with focal DRE.

Spanish version of the Satisfaction with Epilepsy Care questionnaire: Adaptation and psychometric properties.

Objective: The objective of this study was to perform a cross-cultural adaption and psychometric evaluation of the Spanish version of the Satisfaction with Epilepsy Care (SEC) questionnaire and analyze patient satisfaction with epilepsy care.

Methods: Transcultural adaptation and validation of the SEC were carried out using translation and back-translation with pilot testing and an expert panel. The SEC-E (Spanish) was analyzed in 213 patients with epilepsy to examine construct and criterion validity and internal consistency.

How to interpret images in epileptic seizures: correlation between clinical and functional MRI findings.

Neuroimaging studies are essential in patients with epilepsy, both for diagnosis and surgical management. This article focuses on adult epileptic patients, reviewing the updated clinical criteria published by the International League Against Epilepsy for the definitions of seizures, epilepsy, and status epilepticus. It also describes the different types of epilepsy, the different presentations, the signs, the radiologic approach to managing seizures, and the differences between generalized and focal seizures.

Hypothalamic hamartomas in adulthood: Clinical spectrum and treatment outcome-A unicenter experience.

Introduction: Clinical manifestations of the hypothalamic hamartoma-epilepsy syndrome (HH-ES) in adulthood are variable. Efficacy of therapeutic options and outcome are diverse.

Methods: Retrospective study of adult patients diagnosed with a HH in magnetic resonance imaging and epilepsy who attended our tertiary Epilepsy Unit between 2003 and 2018.