Automated electrical source imaging with scalp EEG to define the insular irritative zone: Comparison with simultaneous intracranial EEG.

Objective: To evaluate the accuracy of automatedinterictallow-density electrical source imaging (LD-ESI) to define the insular irritative zone (IZ) by comparing the simultaneous interictal ESI localization with the SEEG interictal activity.

Methods: Long-term simultaneous scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and stereo-EEG (SEEG) with at least one depth electrode exploring the operculo-insular region(s) were analyzed. Automated interictal ESI was performed on the scalp EEG using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) and individual head models.

The Brief Evaluation of Receptive Aphasia test for the detection of language impairment in patients with severe brain injury.

Primary Objective: The assessment of language in patients post-comatose patients is limited by their reduced behavioral repertoire. We developed the Brief Evaluation of Receptive Aphasia (BERA) tool for assessing phonological, semantic and morphosyntactic abilities in patients with severe brain injury based on visual fixation responses.

Research Design: Prospective cross-sectional study and case reports.

Perioral myoclonia with absences and myoclonic status aggravated by oxcarbazepine.

Perioral myoclonia with absences belongs to the "idiopathic generalised epilepsy syndromes in development", currently not yet cited in the ILAE classification. This epilepsy syndrome is associated with a seizure type that appears to be specific. Here, we report polygraphic recordings of this seizure type in a young boy, previously misdiagnosed with focal epilepsy.

Early bifrontal brain injury: disturbances in cognitive function development.

We describe six psychomotor, language, and neuropsychological sequential developmental evaluations in a boy who sustained a severe bifrontal traumatic brain injury (TBI) at 19 months of age. Visuospatial, drawing, and writing skills failed to develop normally. Gradually increasing difficulties were noted in language leading to reading and spontaneous speech difficulties.

Immunological mechanisms in the aetiology of epilepsy: implications for treatment.

About 30 years ago, an autoimmune reaction was hypothesised in animal models of epilepsy and for the genesis of the 'mirror focus' in some patients with refractory epilepsy. However, this hypothesis did not attract attention among clinicians. During the 1950s, cortisone and corticotropin appeared to be efficacious in some epileptic syndromes, but the link with the immune system was not made.

Cognitive problems related to epilepsy syndromes, especially malignant epilepsies.

Neurocognitive impairment is frequent in epilepsy patients. Causes are multiple, and may be influenced by several factors including the epilepsy syndrome. Most cognitive complaints in adult patients are mental slowness, memory difficulties and attention deficits.

Clinical and EEG findings in six patients with altered mental status receiving tiagabine therapy.

Tiagabine (TGB), a novel GABA reuptake inhibitor antiepileptic drug, has been reported to induce nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) in patients with generalized or partial onset seizures. We describe six patients with refractory partial epilepsy treated with add-on TGB. They developed acute intermittent or progressive chronic confusion associated with diffuse slowing of the electroencephalogram (EEG), shortly after an increase in dose of TGB.

Moyamoya disease and Down syndrome: case report and review of the literature.

We present the case of a 29-year-old woman with Down syndrome who developed bilateral frontal ischemic stroke. Cerebral angiography demonstrated an occlusion of the both supraclinoid internal carotid arteries associated with dilated collateral vessels, consistent with moyamoya disease. We review the clinical and radiological features of moyamoya disease associated with Down syndrome and discuss a few major physiopathologic hypotheses to explain this association.

Dual task performance after severe diffuse traumatic brain injury or vascular prefrontal damage.

The ability to perform two tasks simultaneously is a key function of the central executive of working memory (Baddeley, 1986). This study addressed dual-task performance after diffuse very severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) (mean coma duration = 21 days, mean post-traumatic amnesia = 70 days) or prefrontal damage due to a ruptured aneurysm of the anterior communicating artery (AACA). Mean time since injury was 8 and 16 months in the TBI and the AACA group respectively.

Medical treatment of newly diagnosed epilepsy.

The first step in the treatment of epilepsy is the confirmation of the diagnosis. A correct diagnosis not only includes the epileptic origin of the event, but also the diagnosis of the seizure type and the epileptic syndrome. The second step is to try to find the aetiology of the seizures.

[Bradycardia: an unrecognized complication of some epileptic crises].

A 36-year-old man, treated for epilepsy since early childhood, was hospitalized for nocturnal paroxysmal disorders. The EEG-EKG-video monitoring revealed complex partial seizures with bradycardia secondary to a sino-auricular block. The occurrence of autonomic disturbances during seizures is well known, mostly described in temporal epilepsy.

Bradycardia, an epileptic ictal manifestation.

Two patients with recurrent paroxysmal cardio-vascular symptoms are described. The first, an adult, suffered from syncopal events which did not respond to carbamazepine treatment and had a normal interictal EEG and ECG. The second, a child, presented with attacks of cyanosis, apnoea, and non-responsiveness in clusters, with normal interictal examinations.

[Non-epileptic crisis: which therapeutic strategy to follow?].

About 20% of patients with intractable epilepsy do not have epileptic seizures. The exact diagnosis is in fact difficult because most of the time, the seizures are not directly visualized. In case of uncertainty, prolonged EEG/Video monitoring and clinical observation are necessary to avoid escalated drug therapy and behavioural problems.

Treatment of refractory epilepsy with intravenous immunoglobulins. Results of the first double-blind/dose finding clinical study.

Sixty-one refractory epileptic patients (46 with partial epilepsy) were treated with intravenous immunoglobulins in a controlled double-blind/dose finding clinical trial; 18 (7 females, mean age 18.5 years) received placebo, while 14 (3 females, mean age 26.2 years, 2 excluded), 14 (4 females, mean age 24.

[P3 after acoustic and somatosensory stimulation in patients with Huntington disease].

Sixteen Huntington patients (HD) (mean age 43.7 years) were studied and compared to 12 risk people for Huntington disease (HR) (mean age 31.2 years) and 25 normal people (mean age 33.

Event-related potentials and cognitive functions in epileptic treated patients.

Antiepileptic drugs as well epilepsy itself are known to induce some cognitive impairment. Thirty-six epileptic patients under unchanged and reduced therapy conditions were followed from a clinical (seizures' evaluation, reaction times [RTs], memory tests) and neurophysiological (EEG, BAEPs, ERPs) point of view, weekly as inpatients (mean stay 8.9 weeks) and after 1 and 3 months as outpatients.

[Benign grand mal epilepsy in the adult].

In two separate papers submitted to a symposium in Barcelona in December 1987 on primary, generalized grand mal epilepsy becoming manifest in adulthood, the findings were so identical that the authors thought it appropriate to make a joint publication. L. Oller Daurella, after studying 90 cases, and L.

[Flunarizine in epilepsy. Evaluation of a 4-month supplementary treatment in patients resistant to treatment with existing antiepileptics].

Twenty patients affected with a form of epilepsy resistant to treatment received 10 to 20 mg of flunarizine per day in addition to the anti-epileptic medication. The majority of the patients suffered from partial epilepsy with or without secondary generalization. The flunarizine treatment was evaluated after four months.