Levetiracetam versus carbamazepine in patients with late poststroke seizures: a multicenter prospective randomized open-label study (EpIC Project).

Background: Strokes are the leading cause of epileptic seizures in adults and account for 50% of seizures in those over the age of 65 years. The use of antiepileptic drugs to prevent recurrent poststroke seizures is recommended.

Methods: One hundred and twenty-eight patients with poststroke seizures were randomly allocated to treatment with either levetiracetam (LEV) or sustained-release carbamazepine (CBZ) in a multicenter randomized open-label study.

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy with generalised and focal electroencephalographic abnormalities: a case report with a molecular genetic study.

This is the case of a 16-year-old girl with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) and maternal family history positive for epilepsy and febrile seizures, presenting ictal and interictal generalised, as well as focal paroxysmal abnormalities over the right central-temporal regions activated during sleep. The brain magnetic resonance image was normal and the seizures responded to therapy with valproate and lamotrigine. A molecular genetic analysis led to the identification of a polymorphism (A-->G) in position 10 in the intron 3 (rs949626) of the EFHC1 gene; and a polymorphism (T-->C) of the exon of the GABRA1 gene, without aminoacidic exchange.

Association in the same patient of autosomal dominant progressive external ophthalmoplegia with multiple mtDNA deletions and X-linked ichthyosis: clinical, biochemical, histological, submicroscopic and molecular genetic study.

Autosomal dominant chronic progressive external ophthalmoplegia (AdPEO) is a muscle mitochondrial disorder due to multiple large scale rearrangements of the mitochondrial DNA. This disorder is probably due to a nuclear defect which causes genetic instability or an impairment in the replication of mitochondrial DNA. X-linked ichthyosis (XLI) is a skin disorder caused by a deletion in the steroid-sulphatase gene.

Electrophysiological and neuropsychological functions in patients treated with interferon-beta.

The neurotoxicity of interferon-beta (IFN-beta) was assessed by performing electrophysiological examinations and neuropsychological tests on 22 patients with malignant hematological diseases before, during, and after IFN-beta treatment. IFN-beta (6 x 10(6) IU/m2) was infused i.v.