Search NEL Online

Journal Article 2005; 26(3): 219-224 PubMed PMID: 15990725 Citation  Keywords:  Adolescent, Adult, Cerebral Cortex, Cerebral Ventricles, Choristoma, Electroencephalography, Epilepsy:epidemiology, Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory, Female, Humans, Hydrocephalus:epidemiology, Incidence, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Median Nerve:physiolog.   

OBJECTIVES: Developmental cerebral dysplasias are frequent causes of epilepsy. The early stage of gestation, mainly the period of neural crest separation and neuroblast migration (disturbance of midline structures, heterotopias, cortical dysplasias and disturbance of the ventricular and vascular formation), may be considered as a cause of serious cerebral dysplasia. The aim of the study was focused on frequent simultaneous occurrences of epileptic seizures and the defect or abnormality of the ventricular system - cavum septi pellucidi (CSP).

MATERIAL AND METHOD: In our study the clinical symptoms, EEG and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP's) following median nerve stimulation and MRI pictures in the group of patients with CSP (n= 35), were analyzed. In the SEP analysis, a control group of normal, healthy volunteers (n = 40) and a group of age matched patients with epileptic seizures of different origin, without structural lesions evident on MRI (n=21), were used.

RESULTS: Analysis of the patient population with CSP (CSP was confirmed by MRI) showed that approximately in 2/3 cases, different types of cranio-cerebral dysplasias were evident on MRI. More than 2/3 of the patients with CSP showed epilepsy and an abnormal EEG record, however, focal EEG changes were seen more frequently in the group of patients with epilepsy without CSP, than in patients with CSP. The SEP's in patients with CSP showed a statistically significant prolongation of latency of thalamic P15 waves, however these changes were not present in the group of patients with epilepsy of a different origin.

CONCLUSIONS: In a group of patients with CSP, dysplastic MRI changes, together with the prolongation of thalamic wave latencies according SEP, were examined. These clinical symptoms may be considered the result of disturbances of early gestation and of lesions of midline structures. CSP became an interesting model opportunity for us, and allowed for the clinical, MRI and electrophysiological examination of developmental cerebral dysplasias. We believe that there is an important role for septal and diencephalic midline structures in cerebral electrogenesis, and possibly in the origin of epileptic seizures too....

Read abstract  Full text PDF

Case Reports 2005; 26(1): 7-12 PubMed PMID: 15726012 Citation  Keywords:  Adolescent, Adult, Anticonvulsants:therapeutic use, Brain:pathology, Child, Electroencephalography, Epilepsies, Myoclonic:complications, Female, Heme:therapeutic use, Humans, Hydroxymethylbilane Synthase:genetics, Male, Porphyria, Acute Intermittent:compl.   

OBJECTIVES: Myoclonic epilepsy (ME) syndrome is not rare in north-eastern Europe; it is also seen in various forms. Familial occurrence of ME syndrome and acute intermittent porphyria (AIP) was observed in three siblings. The following report was aimed the differentiation between co-morbidity of two different disorders or presence the epileptic seizures within the clinical picture of latent AIP.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A case report of three siblings who suffered from seizures, myoclonias, ataxia and minor psychological changes since the age of 8 and 9 years is described in the following report.

RESULTS: The clinical picture most resembled that of "Baltic myoclonus" (dentate-rubral degeneration or dyssynergia cerebellaris myoclonica -- Ramsay-Hunt syndrome) with epilepsy and/or a benign form of progressive myoclonic epilepsy (PME). The possibility of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) and other aetiological factors, as less probable causes of ME syndrome, were considered. After 15 years of the treatment by anti-epileptic drugs in all three siblings, AIP was discovered.

CONCLUSION: Our interest lies in the differentiation of co-morbidity of two different disorders or presence of epileptic seizures as the clinical picture of latent AIP. We propose that the AIP attacks were caused by long-term administration of anti-epileptic drugs. At the same time we suggest it is a coincidence that the two independent genetic abnormalities coexist in the subjects (benign form of degenerative cerebral disease and AIP)....

Read abstract  Full text PDF

Journal Article 2003; 24(3-4): 151-160 PubMed PMID: 14523349 Citation  Keywords:  Aging:physiology, Attention:physiology, Brain:growth & development, Consciousness Disorders:psychology, Electroencephalography, Electrophysiology, Eye Movements:physiology, Female, Gravitation, Humans, Learning:physiology, Male, Sleep:physiology,.   

: The interest in studying the brain electrical activity as a function of the development of intelligence has been spurred by the need to understand how the brain responds to environmental information. The description of sleep in mentally retarded children reveals deviant patterns of the EEG-spindles and of the eye movement activity (REM sleep) when compared to normal children. The patterns may be considered as a valuable index of mental function. According to experimental evidence, the distribution of the eye movements of sleep appears either as random or ordered. The latter are altered in the mentally handicapped in whom the appearance out of chaos, of the order which is needed for intelligence and memory to function, is altered. The sleep signs are redundant as from birth. Their pattern is also related to the psychomotor development of the infant. If their distribution remains random, or appears in long uninterrupted sequences of waves as in epilepsy, intelligence does not develop. A similar strategy appears to function in the foetus when nature organizes the structures that will lead to the development of intelligence. The eye movement patterns of sleep change in the pregnant women as a function of term and resemble those of premature babies of a similar gestational age. They also change as a function of the menstrual cycle and more generally as a function of age. The hypothesis that attention is the diurnal equivalent of REM sleep is discussed. Attempts at modelling the eye movement patterns of REM sleep as a function of near zero gravity environments have been made. 1) By means of a Montecarlo simulation using the semi Markov model during the Spacelab 1 flight. 2) With the method of the single and multiple g-phase transition analysis of the strange attractor dimension (d) during parabolic flights. The implication of the latter for the neural processes involved in learning is that the central nervous system can preserve intact, from input to output, over a period of several days, all the information it receives 3) The relation between spindles and eye movements has also been viewed by a quantum approach which is another medium between the information and the way of describing it....

Read abstract