Recent Research

A recent study set out to find out how long electroencephalography (EEG) recordings need to be in order to effectively detect epileptic spasms (ES) in patients with infantile epileptic spasms syndrome (IESS). This research looked back at data from patients who had overnight video-EEG monitoring between January 2020 and June 2022. The goal was to gather insights on how the duration of EEG monitoring impacts the detection of these spasms and related conditions.

Epilepsy can present significant challenges when it comes to pinpointing the exact area in the brain responsible for seizures, especially for patients who do not respond to medication. Identifying this area, known as the epileptogenic zone (EZ), is crucial for effective presurgical planning. In the quest to improve this localization process, researchers have turned their attention to interictal spikes—brief bursts of electrical activity in the brain that occur between seizures. Specifically, they’ve examined a type of spike known as pSpikes, which overlap with high-frequency oscillations. This study aimed to see how well pSpikes perform compared to other types of spikes in identifying the EZ.

In a recent study, researchers investigated whether measuring a specific protein in the blood, called phosphorylated neurofilament heavy chain (pNF-H), could help predict the development of posttraumatic epilepsy following a traumatic brain injury (TBI). This protein acts as a marker for nerve damage, and scientists wanted to see if its levels in the blood could indicate whether injured rats would experience epilepsy later on.

A recent study explored the incidence of late-onset epilepsy (LOE) in different racial and ethnic groups in the USA, with a particular focus on the Hispanic population. This is an important topic because stroke is a major factor that can lead to LOE, and previous research has shown that strokes happen more frequently in non-Hispanic Black (NHB) and Hispanic communities compared to non-Hispanic White (NHW) individuals. By analyzing data from the Northern Manhattan Study, researchers sought to understand how LOE rates vary among these groups and whether the impact of stroke on LOE risk changes depending on race or ethnicity.

In a recent study, researchers set out to determine how much improvement in quality of life is clinically important for children with epilepsy, using two specific questionnaires: the 55-item Quality of Life in Childhood Epilepsy Questionnaire (QOLCE-55) and its shorter 16-item version (QOLCE-16). They focused on understanding the Minimum Clinically Important Difference (MCID) for these questionnaires, which tells us how many points a child’s score needs to increase for it to be considered a significant improvement in their well-being.

In a fascinating study, researchers explored the impact of certain mutations in the GIRDIN/CCDC88A gene, which are linked to a severe brain disorder in humans known as developmental epileptic encephalopathy (DEE). The challenge they faced was that mice bred to have similar genetic mutations typically died before they could grow past the early stages of life, making it difficult to study how these mutations lead to epilepsy. To tackle this issue, the scientists created a novel lifelong feeding strategy that allowed the mice to survive well beyond the usual early fatality, helping them to investigate the pathogenesis of DEE more effectively.

Researchers are making strides in understanding epilepsy, particularly in identifying objective biomarkers that indicate neural epileptic activity (EA). This study focused on whether measuring neuronal complexity—essentially how organized or chaotic brain activity is—could serve as a reliable marker for epilepsy, independent of the usual signs like interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs). By gradually reducing anti-seizure medication…

Researchers are always on the lookout for new ways to identify and understand brain wave patterns, especially in conditions like Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), a challenging type of epilepsy. Traditionally, this identification process has depended heavily on visual inspection of EEG waveforms, which can be biased and subjective. To address these limitations, a new data-driven approach called scalp EEG Pattern Identification and Categorization (s-EPIC) has been developed. This method allows for the automated and unsupervised detection of EEG patterns, potentially leading to the discovery of new biomarkers for LGS.

In a fascinating study exploring potential biomarkers for post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE), researchers set out to see if certain microRNAs (miRNAs) in the blood could help predict who might develop this condition after a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Using 245 adult male rats, the team induced TBIs in some while others underwent a sham operation (essentially a fake surgery). After seven months, they monitored the rats for spontaneous seizures using a method called video-electroencephalography (vEEG) and then collected blood samples to analyze the presence of specific miRNAs.