Afebrile Seizures (afebrile + seizures)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Afebrile benign convulsions with mild gastroenteritis: a new entity?

ACTA NEUROLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2 2009
A. Verrotti
Afebrile seizures in children usually necessitate investigations in order to determine the etiology and estimate the prognosis. Recently, convulsions that are described as benign but afebrile have been documented in children, in association with diarrhea, and are now recognized as a distinct entity. Benign afebrile seizures with mild gastroenteritis are defined as convulsions accompanying symptoms of mild diarrhea without dehydration or electrolyte derangement and without fever before and after the seizures in healthy children without meningitis, encephalitis or encephalopathy. The convulsions are short, symmetrical, generalized tonic,clonic seizures, occurring in clusters. Laboratory studies (full blood count, blood glucose, creatinine, serum electrolytes, cerebrospinal fluid, bacterial and viral cultures) are usually normal, and other investigations (neuroimaging and electroencephalogram) are not necessary. Prognosis is always favorable (normal psychomotor development, no recurrences of seizures), and anticonvulsant therapy is not warranted. Recognition of this benign infantile convulsion avoids extensive evaluation and long-term anticonvulsant therapy; physicians may reassure the parents regarding the lack of long-term sequelae. In conclusion, this type of seizure seems to be a new entity, but it awaits a correct place in the large group of infantile convulsion disorders. [source]


Hemiconvulsion,hemiplegia syndrome in a patient with severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy

EPILEPSIA, Issue 9 2009
Takafumi Sakakibara
Summary We report a 2-year-old girl who had repeated febrile or afebrile seizures since infancy. Prolonged left/right hemiconvulsions and myoclonus of the eyelids/extremities with generalization to tonic,clonic seizures, were refractory to antiepileptic agents. At age 1 year and 4 months, she contracted rotavirus infection, and developed status epilepticus with persistent right hemiclonic seizures. Left unilateral brain edema with subsequent emergence of cortical laminar necrosis and white matter lesions, and progressive atrophy of the left cerebral hemisphere were noted during this period. She showed residual right hemiparesis and mild intellectual disability, and had generalized/eyelid myoclonia and hot water epilepsy after a 5-month seizure-free period. Analysis for SCN1A, the gene encoding the neuronal voltage-gated Na+ channel ,1 subunit revealed a nonsense mutation, R1892X. These indicate the potential risk in patients with severe myoclonic epilepsy in infancy (SMEI) to develop hemiconvulsion,hemiplegia (HH) syndrome. SCN1A mutations may need to be further explored in patients with HH syndrome without features of SMEI. [source]


Seizures in children after kidney transplantation: Has the risk changed and can we predict who is at greatest risk?

PEDIATRIC TRANSPLANTATION, Issue 5 2008
Lorie D. Hamiwka
Abstract:, Children undergoing kidney transplantation are at increased risk for symptomatic seizures with a previously reported incidence of approximately 20%. Little data exist to help predict which children may be at risk. We retrospectively reviewed all children who underwent kidney transplantation evaluation at our center between October 1993 and August 2007 and identified 41 children who had an EEG prior to transplant. Demographic data as well as the following were collected: immunosuppressive medications, developmental status, history of seizures, family history of seizures, post-transplant seizures and EEG results. EEGs were classified as normal or abnormal. Prior to transplantation, one child had a history of febrile seizures and six experienced afebrile seizures. Nine (22%) children identified had an abnormal EEG prior to transplant. In eight cases the EEG was non-epileptiform and in one case was epileptiform. Abnormal EEGs did not correlate with a family history of seizures. Delayed development was noted in seven children and was not associated with an epileptiform EEG. Following kidney transplantation, no child experienced a seizure. Our single center study suggests that current rates of seizures following kidney transplantation are lower than previously reported and that routine EEG as part of the pretransplant evaluation in these children is of limited use to predict those at risk. [source]


Afebrile benign convulsions with mild gastroenteritis: a new entity?

ACTA NEUROLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 2 2009
A. Verrotti
Afebrile seizures in children usually necessitate investigations in order to determine the etiology and estimate the prognosis. Recently, convulsions that are described as benign but afebrile have been documented in children, in association with diarrhea, and are now recognized as a distinct entity. Benign afebrile seizures with mild gastroenteritis are defined as convulsions accompanying symptoms of mild diarrhea without dehydration or electrolyte derangement and without fever before and after the seizures in healthy children without meningitis, encephalitis or encephalopathy. The convulsions are short, symmetrical, generalized tonic,clonic seizures, occurring in clusters. Laboratory studies (full blood count, blood glucose, creatinine, serum electrolytes, cerebrospinal fluid, bacterial and viral cultures) are usually normal, and other investigations (neuroimaging and electroencephalogram) are not necessary. Prognosis is always favorable (normal psychomotor development, no recurrences of seizures), and anticonvulsant therapy is not warranted. Recognition of this benign infantile convulsion avoids extensive evaluation and long-term anticonvulsant therapy; physicians may reassure the parents regarding the lack of long-term sequelae. In conclusion, this type of seizure seems to be a new entity, but it awaits a correct place in the large group of infantile convulsion disorders. [source]