Levetiracetam in porphyric status epilepticus: a case report.

Status epilepticus in patients with acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) are difficult to treat. In this report the author describes a patient with AIP and status epilepticus who was successfully treated with a combination of intravenous magnesium and levetiracetam. This case and the limited experience reported in the literature show that it is probably safe to administer levetiracetam in patients with AIP; however, its role in the treatment of status epilepticus deserves further evaluation.

Temporal lobe tumoral epilepsy: characteristics and predictors of surgical outcome.

Objective: To review the clinical and neurophysiologic features and surgical outcome in patients with intractable temporal lobe tumoral epilepsy.

Methods: Patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy who underwent resection of temporal lobe tumors, confirmed by surgical pathology, seen between 1985 and 2000 at Yale University School of Medicine Epilepsy Center, were selected. Medical records were reviewed for age at diagnosis, age at onset of seizures, delay between seizure onset and tumor diagnosis, types and frequencies of seizures, EEG results, use of anticonvulsants, extent of surgery, and pathologic diagnosis.

Anticonvulsant-induced dyskinesia.

Anticonvulsant-induced dyskinesia (AID) is an underdiagnosed side effect of many anticonvulsants that may take place during initial or chronic treatment at normal or toxic drug levels. The occurrence of AID subjects the patient to another medical condition and may prompt an extensive work-up. Similarities with other drug-induced dyskinesias and some animal studies suggest that dopaminergic dysfunction in the basal ganglia is pivotal in the occurrence of dyskinesia.

Heart rate variability during interictal epileptiform discharges.

Rationale: Seizures may produce a variety of autonomic alterations. These alterations may occur due to evoked autonomic reflexes or as a direct cortical effect on autonomic control. In animal studies, lock step phenomena of interictal discharges to autonomic output have been repeatedly documented.

Frontal lobe tumoral epilepsy: clinical, neurophysiologic features and predictors of surgical outcome.

Purpose: To review the clinical, neurophysiologic features and surgical outcomes in patients with frontal lobe tumors and chronic intractable seizures.

Methods: Medical records of patients with intractable epilepsy who underwent resection or stereotactic biopsy of frontal lobe tumor (confirmed by surgical pathology) seen between 1985 and 1999 at Yale University School of Medicine Epilepsy Center were reviewed for age at diagnosis, age at onset of seizures, delay between seizure onset and tumor diagnosis, types and frequencies of seizures, EEG results, use of anticonvulsants, extent of surgery, pathological diagnosis, and tumor recurrence.

Results: Thirty-seven patients were included.

Morphometric and neuropsychologic studies in children with arachnoid cysts.

Temporal lobe arachnoid cysts are common findings during brain imaging. Debate exists regarding whether they result from temporal lobe agenesis or are a malformation of the arachnoid matter. We measured temporal lobe volumes in five children with left middle cranial fossa arachnoid cysts using morphometric analysis of magnetic resonance imaging scans.