Polysomnographic Sleep Patterns in Children and Adolescents in Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome.

Objectives: We aimed (i) to search for qualitative sleep patterns for pediatric unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (SPPUWS) in prolonged polysomnographic (PSG) recordings in children and adolescents with subacute severe disorders of consciousness due to an acquired brain damage; (ii) to investigate the clinical relevance of SPPUWS and of possible neurophysiological markers (rapid eye movement sleep and sleep spindles) in PSG recordings of pediatric patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS).

Methods: We performed a PSG study in 27 children with UWS due to acquired brain damage in the subacute phase. Patients received a full neurological examination and a clinical assessment with standardized scales.

Paroxysmal phenomena in severe disabled children with refractory seizures. From clinical to long-video-EEG processing data to re-examine suspect events.

To provide an estimate of the occurrence of misdiagnosis in paroxysmal events in institutionalized children with severe disabilities and refractory epilepsy. A multi-step diagnostic survey, from observational to long-term video-EEG monitoring was performed in 46 severe disabled children. Multirater Kappa statistic was used to assess agreement between investigators and to individualize children who remained with dubious events.

Variable electrobehavioral patterns during focal nonconvulsive status epilepticus induced by unilateral intrahippocampal injection of kainic acid.

Objective: Nonconvulsive status epilepticus (ncSE) is a severe condition that may result in neurologic sequelae and epilepsy resistant to pharmacologic treatment. We analyze here seizure and electroencephalography (EEG) patterns and their correlation to the development of a chronic epileptic condition in a guinea pig model of focal ncSE induced by intrahippocampal injection of kainic acid (KA).

Methods: Electrobehavioral patterns during ncSE induced by unilateral injection of 1 μg of KA in the CA1 region of the hippocampus were characterized by continuous video-EEG monitoring in 13 guinea pigs bilaterally implanted with recording electrodes in the hippocampus and neocortex.

A guinea pig model of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy following nonconvulsive status epilepticus induced by unilateral intrahippocampal injection of kainic acid.

Purpose:   Models of temporal lobe epilepsy are commonly utilized to study focal epileptogenesis and ictogenesis. The criteria that define animal models representative of human mesial temporal lobe may vary in different laboratories. We describe herein a focal epilepsy model of mesial temporal (hippocampal) origin that relies on the analysis of interictal and ictal electroencephalography (EEG) patterns and on their correlation with seizure symptoms and neuropathologic findings.

Levetiracetam in submaximal subcutaneous pentylentetrazol-induced seizures in rats.

Despite anticonvulsant efficacy in animal models of generalized epilepsy, levetiracetam was not effective in the maximal subcutaneous PTZ model in mice and rats. Aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of levetiracetam (LEV) against submaximal, s.c.