Prediction of functional outcome in patients with convulsive status epilepticus: the END-IT score.

Background: Prediction of the functional outcome for patients with convulsive status epilepticus (CSE) has been a challenge. The aim of this study was to characterize the prognostic factors and functional outcomes of patients after CSE in order to develop a practicable scoring system for outcome prediction.

Methods: We performed a retrospective explorative analysis on consecutive patients diagnosed with CSE between March, 2008 and November, 2014 in a tertiary academic medical center in northwest China.

The Effects of Amiloride on Seizure Activity, Cognitive Deficits and Seizure-Induced Neurogenesis in a Novel Rat Model of Febrile Seizures.

Accumulating data suggest that sodium-hydrogen exchangers (NHEs) play a key role in modulating seizure activity by regulating neuronal pH in the brain. Amiloride, an inhibitor of NHEs, has been demonstrated to be effective in many seizure models, although its efficacy for prolonged febrile seizures (FS) remains unclear. In this study, we investigated whether amiloride could produce neuroprotective effects in a prolonged FS model in which FS were induced in rat pups at postnatal day 10 using a heated air approach.

Astrocytic expression of cannabinoid type 1 receptor in rat and human sclerotic hippocampi.

Cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R), which is traditionally located on axon terminals, plays an important role in the pathology of epilepsy and neurodegenerative diseases by modulating synaptic transmission. Using the pilocarpine model of chronic spontaneous recurrent seizures, which mimics the main features of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with hippocampal sclerosis (HS) in humans, we examined the expression of CB1R in hippocampal astrocytes of epileptic rats. Furthermore, we also examined the expression of astrocytic CB1R in the resected hippocampi from patients with medically refractory mesial TLE.