Anti-GAD65 musicogenic epilepsy: Bilateral and independent mesial temporal seizures revealed by foramen ovale electrodes.

Musicogenic epilepsy (ME) is characterized by seizures triggered by music. The epileptogenic focus in this rare reflex epilepsy is often in the temporal lobe, although the precise localization is still unclear. A correlation between ME and the presence of GAD65 antibodies indicates a potential immunological pathogenic mechanism.

Adjunctive cenobamate in people with focal onset seizures: Insights from the Italian Expanded Access Program.

Objective: This study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness/tolerability of adjunctive cenobamate, variations in the load of concomitant antiseizure medications (ASMs) and predictors of clinical response in people with focal epilepsy.

Methods: This was a retrospective study at 21 centers participating in the Italian Expanded Access Program. Effectiveness outcomes included retention and responder rates (≥50% and 100% reduction in baseline seizure frequency).

Suitability of electroencephalography in brain death determination: a monocentric, 10-year retrospective, observational investigation of 428 cases.

Background: We aimed to verify the usefulness of electroencephalographic (EEG) activity recording (that is mandatory according to the Italian law), in addition to two clinical evaluations spaced 6 h, among the procedures of brain death determination (BDD) in adult individuals.

Methods: The study is a monocentric, retrospective analysis of all BDDs performed in the last 10 years at Policlinico Le Scotte in Siena (Italy).

Results: Of the 428 cases revised (mean age 67.

Thalamic altered spontaneous activity and connectivity in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

Background And Purpose: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) syndrome is a sleep disorder characterized by excessive snoring, repetitive apneas, and nocturnal arousals, that leads to fragmented sleep and intermittent nocturnal hypoxemia. Morphometric and functional brain alterations in cortical and subcortical structures have been documented in these patients via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), even if correlational data between the alterations in the brain and cognitive and clinical indexes are still not reported.

Methods: We examined the impact of OSA on brain spontaneous activity by measuring the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) in resting-state functional MRI data of 20 drug-naïve patients with OSA syndrome and 20 healthy controls matched for age, gender, and body mass index.

The surgical treatment of epilepsy.

In 2009, the Commission for Epilepsy Surgery of the Italian League Against Epilepsy (LICE) conducted an overview about the techniques used for the pre-surgical evaluation and the surgical treatment of epilepsies. The recognition that, in selected cases, surgery can be considered the first-line approach, suggested that the experience gained by the main Italian referral centers should be pooled in order to provide a handy source of reference. In light of the progress made over these past years, some parts of that first report have accordingly been updated.