Publications by authors named "Mark Keezer"
Introduction: Preeclampsia is associated with acute neurological complications during pregnancy, but the subsequent risk of developing a neurological disorder is unclear. We determined if preeclampsia was associated with the long-term risk of neurological morbidity.
Methods: We conducted a longitudinal cohort study of 1,460,098 pregnant women with and without preeclampsia in Quebec, Canada, between 1989 and 2023.
Background And Objectives: There is a paucity of data directly comparing the outcome of surgical techniques available for the treatment of hypothalamic hamartomas (HHs). This study aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of commonly used surgical approaches in the treatment of HH-related epilepsy.
Methods: A systematic review and individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis was conducted.
Importance: How epilepsy may promote cardiovascular disease remains poorly understood.
Objective: To estimate the odds of new-onset cardiovascular events (CVEs) over 6 years in older people with vs without epilepsy, exploring how enzyme-inducing antiseizure medications (EIASMs) and traditional cardiovascular risk factors mediate these odds.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This was a prospective cohort study using the comprehensive cohort of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), with 6 years of follow-up (2015-2021, analysis performed in December 2023).
Article Synopsis
- Older adults have a lot of epilepsy cases because of aging and health changes that make them weaker, a condition called frailty.
- Frailty can make health worse and is linked to many problems, like having multiple illnesses or low exercise; it can also affect how well epilepsy medicine works.
- Doctors are trying to create specific ways to measure frailty in people with epilepsy and manage it better, because unlike age, frailty can be improved with the right care.
Article Synopsis
- - The text evaluates various elastography methods used to assess biomechanical properties of back muscles in patients with musculoskeletal disorders (MSKd), highlighting their reliability, validity, and responsiveness based on a meta-analysis of 79 studies involving 3,178 participants.
- - Three elastography techniques were identified: strain imaging (SI), which showed good reliability and medium validity in detecting changes over time, and shear wave imaging (SWI), which also had strong reliability and even higher responsiveness, particularly in detecting between-group changes.
- - The findings indicate that while elastography methods can reliably distinguish patients with MSDk from controls, further long-term studies are needed to confirm their effectiveness in tracking changes over time between different patient groups, especially given the high heter
Article Synopsis
- The study aims to create and validate a clinical risk score to predict renal angiomyolipoma (AML) and pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC).
- Data from 2420 participants was analyzed using logistic regression, taking into account early-onset clinical signs, sex, and genetic mutations to develop risk scores for AML and LAM.
- Results showed that risk scores effectively predicted the likelihood of AML and LAM, with excellent calibration and strong discrimination, suggesting potential for personalized preventative care and screening in TSC patients.
Implications for driving based on the risk of seizures after ischaemic stroke.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
August 2024
Article Synopsis
- After having a stroke, some people might have seizures, which can affect their ability to drive safely.
- Researchers studied over 4,400 stroke survivors to figure out their risk of having a seizure in the next year using the SeLECT model.
- The results showed that people without seizures right after their stroke have a lower risk, while those with seizures have a much higher risk, and tools like apps can help decide if they can drive safely.
This practice guideline provides updated evidence-based conclusions and recommendations regarding the effects of antiseizure medications (ASMs) and folic acid supplementation on the prevalence of major congenital malformations (MCMs), adverse perinatal outcomes, and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children born to people with epilepsy of childbearing potential (PWECP). A multidisciplinary panel conducted a systematic review and developed practice recommendations following the process outlined in the 2017 edition of the American Academy of Neurology Clinical Practice Guideline Process Manual. The systematic review includes studies through August 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Despite the general safety and efficacy of epilepsy surgery, there is evidence that epilepsy surgery remains underutilized. Although there are an increasing number of studies reporting epilepsy surgery in older adults, there is no consensus on whether epilepsy surgery is efficacious or safe for this population. Our objective was to systematically assess the efficacy as well as safety of resective surgery in people aged 50 years or older with drug-resistant epilepsy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Few studies have compared different measures of frailty for predicting adverse outcomes. It remains unknown which frailty measurement approach best predicts healthcare utilization such as hospitalization and mortality.
Aims: This study aims to compare three approaches to measuring frailty-grip strength, frailty phenotype, and frailty index-in predicting hospitalization and mortality among middle-aged and older Canadians.
Introduction: Hypothalamic hamartomas (HHs) are deep-seated congenital lesions that typically lead to pharmacoresistant epilepsy and a catastrophic encephalopathic syndrome characterised by severe neuropsychological impairment and decline in quality of life. A variety of surgical approaches and technologies are available for the treatment of HH-related pharmacoresistant epilepsy. There remains, however, a paucity of literature directly comparing their relative efficacy and safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Computational analysis of routine electroencephalogram (rEEG) could improve the accuracy of epilepsy diagnosis. We aim to systematically assess the diagnostic performances of computed biomarkers for epilepsy in individuals undergoing rEEG.
Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBM reviews, IEEE Explore and the grey literature for studies published between January 1961 and December 2022.
We evaluated the effectiveness and tolerability of brivaracetam (BRV), an adjunctive antiseizure medication, as a treatment for focal epilepsy in adults. In this prospective study, we enrolled 51 participants from 3 sites across Canada. At 6 months, 68% (26/38) of participants were still taking BRV, among whom 35% (8/23) attained seizure freedom and 48% (11/23) saw their seizure frequency reduced by over 50%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Several two-sample Mendelian randomization studies have reported discordant results concerning the association between grip strength and cardiovascular disease, possibly due to the number of instrumental variables used, pleiotropic bias, and/ or effect modification by age and sex.
Methods: We conducted a sex- and age-stratified one-sample Mendelian randomization study in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging. We investigated whether grip strength is associated with carotid intima media thickness (cIMT), a marker of vascular atherosclerosis event risk, using eighteen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) identified as specifically associated with grip strength.
Purpose: There is limited knowledge on the reliability of risk of bias (ROB) tools for assessing internal validity in systematic reviews of exposure and frequency studies. We aimed to identify and then compare the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of six commonly used tools for frequency (Loney scale, Gyorkos checklist, American Academy of Neurology [AAN] tool) and exposure (Newcastle-Ottawa scale, SIGN50 checklist, AAN tool) studies.
Methods: Six raters independently assessed the ROB of 30 frequency and 30 exposure studies using the three respective ROB tools.
A bibliometric analysis (BA) is a knowledge synthesis methodology aimed at quantitively summarizing large amounts of bibliometric data. We aimed to summarize the performance of BAs in the health sciences. We searched Scopus for BAs in the health sciences published prior to May 10, 2023.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOn June 24, 2022, was decided by the Supreme Court effectively overturning the former precedent of . This ruling has direct consequences for the care of persons with epilepsy of childbearing potential. Now more than ever we need to provide informed and comprehensive care to our patients with epilepsy who are particularly vulnerable to the impact of this legislation on their reproductive decision-making.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Late-onset epilepsy is a heterogenous entity associated with specific aetiologies and an elevated risk of premature mortality. Specific multimorbid-socioeconomic profiles and their unique prognostic trajectories have not been described. We sought to determine if specific clusters of late onset epilepsy exist, and whether they have unique hazards of premature mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To evaluate the impact of text mining (TM) on the sensitivity and specificity of title and abstract screening strategies for systematic reviews (SRs).
Study Design And Setting: Twenty reviewers each evaluated a 500-citation set. We compared five screening methods: conventional double screen (CDS), single screen, double screen with TM, combined double screen and single screen with TM, and single screen with TM.
Objective: The literature on sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) has been evolving at a staggering rate. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of the SUDEP literature with the aim of presenting its structure, performance, and trends.
Methods: The Scopus database was searched in April 2023 for documents explicitly detailing SUDEP in their title, abstract, or keywords.
Objective: The use of medical cannabis among people with epilepsy (PWE) has been garnering increasing interest. In this scoping review, we aimed to summarize the literature on recreational/non-medical cannabis (NMC) use in PWE, focusing on the experience, habits, and beliefs of PWE regarding NMC.
Methods: Four databases (OVID Medline, OVID Embase, Ovid APA PsycInfo, and Web of Science) were searched for studies describing NMC use in PWE.