Utility and Safety of Perampanel in Pediatric FIRES and Other Drug-Resistant Epilepsies.

Perampanel is a novel antiepileptic drug, which antagonises AMPA (alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid) glutamate receptor. We describe perampanel as an adjunctive treatment for FIRES (febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome) and other drug-resistant epilepsies. A single-centre, observational, retrospective study involving 20 pediatric patients was conducted.

Unique Severe HyperEkplexia-Like Apneic Events (SHELAE) Improved by High-Dose Piracetam.

Breath-holding spells are common non-epileptic events with onset between 6 months and 18 months of age that are usually triggered by minor painful events or strong emotions. Symptomatic treatments for breath-holding spells include iron supplementation, glycopyrrolate and piracetam. Hyperekplexia is a rare non-epileptic disorder characterized by generalized hypertonia and exaggerated startle.

Pro-inflammatory, IL-17 pathways dominate the architecture of the immunome in pediatric refractory epilepsy.

Drug refractory epilepsy (RE) is a chronic neurological disease with varied etiology that represents a group of patients whose seizures do not respond to anti-epileptic drugs. The immune system may have a role in seizure and epilepsy development, but the specific mechanisms of inflammation that lead to epileptogenesis and contribute to RE are unknown. Here, we used mass cytometry to comprehensively study the immune system of pediatric patients with RE and compared their immune profile and function with patients with age-matched autoimmune encephalitis (AIE) and healthy controls.