Objective: Previous retrospective studies have reported vigabatrin-associated brain abnormalities on magnetic resonance imaging (VABAM), although clinical impact is unknown. We evaluated the association between vigabatrin and predefined brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) changes in a large homogenous tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) cohort and assessed to what extent VABAM-related symptoms were reported in TSC infants.
Methods: The Dutch TSC Registry and the EPISTOP cohort provided retrospective and prospective data from 80 TSC patients treated with vigabatrin (VGB) before the age of 2 years and 23 TSC patients without VGB.
Objective: Clinical visual intraoperative electrocorticography (ioECoG) reading intends to localize epileptic tissue and improve epilepsy surgery outcome. We aimed to understand whether machine learning (ML) could complement ioECoG reading, how subgroups affected performance, and which ioECoG features were most important.
Methods: We included 91 ioECoG-guided epilepsy surgery patients with Engel 1A outcome.
Despite the availability of various treatment approaches for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), some patients do not respond to these therapies, and novel treatment approaches are needed. This study investigated the efficacy of mifepristone, a glucocorticoid receptor antagonist, in treatment-resistant PTSD patients. Three patients with PTSD who were resistant to standard psychological and pharmacological treatments were prescribed mifepristone (600-1,200 mg/day) for 1 week.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPublication selection bias undermines the systematic accumulation of evidence. To assess the extent of this problem, we survey over 68,000 meta-analyses containing over 700,000 effect size estimates from medicine (67,386/597,699), environmental sciences (199/12,707), psychology (605/23,563), and economics (327/91,421). Our results indicate that meta-analyses in economics are the most severely contaminated by publication selection bias, closely followed by meta-analyses in environmental sciences and psychology, whereas meta-analyses in medicine are contaminated the least.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Guidelines suggest considering antiseizure medication (ASM) discontinuation in seizure-free patients with epilepsy. Past work has poorly explored how discontinuation effects vary between patients. We evaluated (1) what factors modify the influence of discontinuation on seizure risk; and (2) the range of seizure risk increase due to discontinuation across low- versus high-risk patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: We aimed to evaluate determinants of functional outcome after pediatric hemispherotomy in a large and recent multicenter cohort.
Methods: We retrospectively investigated the functional outcomes of 455 children who underwent hemispherotomy at 5 epilepsy centers in 2000-2016. We identified determinants of unaided walking, voluntary grasping with the hemiplegic hand, and speaking through Bayesian multivariable regression modeling using missing data imputation.
Objectives: To describe randomized controlled trial (RCT) methodology reporting over time.
Study Design And Setting: We used a deep learning-based sentence classification model based on the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement, considered minimum requirements for reporting RCTs. We included 176,469 RCT reports published between 1966 and 2018.
Background: Despite improvements in acute stroke therapies and rehabilitation strategies, many stroke patients are left with long-term upper limb motor impairment. We assessed whether an inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment paradigm started within 3 weeks after stroke onset promotes upper limb motor recovery.
Methods: We performed a single-center randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial.
Background And Objectives: To describe neurologist practice patterns, challenges, and decision support needs pertaining to withdrawal of antiseizure medications (ASMs) in patients with well-controlled epilepsy.
Methods: We sent an electronic survey to (1) US and (2) European physician members of the American Academy of Neurology and (3) members of EpiCARE, a European Reference Network for rare and complex epilepsies. Analyses included frequencies and percentages, and we showed distributions through histograms and violin plots.
Objectives: To evaluate how well meta-analysis mean estimators represent reported medical research and establish which meta-analysis method is better using widely accepted model selection measures: Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC).
Study Design And Setting: We compiled 67,308 meta-analyses from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) published between 1997 and 2020, collectively encompassing nearly 600,000 medical findings. We compared unrestricted weighted least squares (UWLS) vs.
Objective: We aimed to assess determinants of seizure outcome following pediatric hemispherotomy in a contemporary cohort.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the seizure outcomes of 457 children who underwent hemispheric surgery in five European epilepsy centers between 2000 and 2016. We identified variables related to seizure outcome through multivariable regression modeling with missing data imputation and optimal group matching, and we further investigated the role of surgical technique by Bayes factor (BF) analysis.
Objective: Choosing candidates for antiseizure medication (ASM) withdrawal in well-controlled epilepsy is challenging. We evaluated (a) the correlation between neurologists' seizure risk estimation ("clinician predictions") vs calculated predictions, (b) how viewing calculated predictions influenced recommendations, and (c) barriers to using risk calculation.
Methods: We asked US and European neurologists to predict 2-year seizure risk after ASM withdrawal for hypothetical vignettes.
Objective: Guidelines suggest considering antiseizure medication (ASM) discontinuation in patients with epilepsy who become seizure-free. Little is known about how discontinuation decisions are being made in practice. We measured the frequency of, and factors associated with, discussions and decisions surrounding ASM discontinuation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Clin Med
December 2022
Background: It remains unclear whether revascularization of moyamoya vasculopathy (MMV) has a positive effect on cognitive function. In this prospective, single-center study, we investigated the effect of revascularization on cognitive function in patients with MMV. We report clinical and radiological outcome parameters and the associations between clinical determinants and change in neurocognitive functioning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMRI and intraoperative electrocorticography are often used in tandem to delineate epileptogenic tissue in resective surgery for focal epilepsy. Both the resection of the MRI lesion and tissue with high rates of electrographic discharges on electrocorticography, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To explore indicators of the following questionable research practices (QRPs) in randomized controlled trials (RCTs): (1) risk of bias in four domains (random sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding of participants and personnel, and blinding of outcome assessment); (2) modifications in primary outcomes that were registered in trial registration records (proxy for selective reporting bias); (3) ratio of the achieved to planned sample sizes; and (4) statistical discrepancy.
Study Design And Setting: Full texts of all human RCTs published in PubMed in 1996-2017 were automatically identified and information was collected automatically. Potential indicators of QRPs included author-specific, publication-specific, and journal-specific characteristics.
Background: A third of people with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) are drug-resistant. Three-quarters have a seizure relapse when attempting to withdraw anti-seizure medication (ASM) after achieving seizure-freedom. It is currently impossible to predict who is likely to become drug-resistant and safely withdraw treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite improved ancillary investigations in epilepsy care, patients' narratives remain indispensable for diagnosing and treatment monitoring. This wealth of information is typically stored in electronic health records and accumulated in medical journals in an unstructured manner, thereby restricting complete utilization in clinical decision-making. To this end, clinical researchers increasing apply natural language processing (NLP)-a branch of artificial intelligence-as it removes ambiguity, derives context, and imbues standardized meaning from free-narrative clinical texts.
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