Active clinical trials for "Seizures"

This study is designed to use positron emission tomography to measure brain energy use. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a technique used to investigate the functional activity of the brain. The PET technique allows doctors to study the normal processes of the brain (central nervous system) of normal individuals and patients with neurologic illnesses without physical / structural damage to the brain. When a region of the brain is active, it uses more fuel in the form of oxygen and sugar (glucose). As the brain uses more fuel it produces more waste products, carbon dioxide and water. Blood carries fuel to the brain and waste products away from the brain. As brain activity increases blood flow to and from the area of activity increases also. Researchers can label a sugar with a small radioactive molecule called FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose). As areas of the brain use more sugar the PET scan will detect the FDG and show the areas of the brain that are active. By using this technique researchers hope to answer the following questions; 4. Are changes in brain energy use (metabolism) present early in the course of epilepsy 5. Do changes in brain metabolism match the severity of patient's seizures 6. Do changes in metabolism occur over time or in response to drug therapy

The primary goal of this observational study is to establish the accuracy of CNS-specific Assay for Recurrent Paroxysmal Events (CARPE) as a diagnostic blood test for epilepsy. The target population is patients who have been newly referred to the Penn Epilepsy Center or patients who are admitted to HUP for continuous video EEG monitoring. (Subjects without an epilepsy diagnosis will be included.) Subjects will be asked to provide consent, agree to allow the study team to collect information from their medical record, and to provide at least one blood sample.

This observational study aims to investigate how VIMPAT® is used as adjunctive therapy in clinical practice and will also evaluate the subsequent change in the drug load of patients after addition of VIMPAT® to their treatment regimen.

This is a prospective, comparative, multicenter study of subjects being admitted for standard of care therapy in Epilepsy Monitoring Units in the Veteran's Affair (VA) Medical Centers.

Awake craniotomy require a cooperative patient during resection neurosurgery phase. Anesthesiologist should guarantee analgesia, sedation, nausea and vomiting prevention, while maintaining normal vital parameters. Neurosurgeon could be help by Intraoperative electrocorticography to maximise lesion resection and avoiding neurologic sequelae. Propofol and remifentanyl have been largely used. Dexmedetomidine represents an alternative. However little is known about the role of dexmedetomidine on Intraoperative electrocorticography.

The actual recommendations for infants aged 3 to 12 months presented with first episode of Febrile Convulsions highly recommend performing lumbar puncture in order to rule out Bacterial Meningitis. On the other hand, recent studies in the era of anti Pneumococcal vaccination arise the question if in the presence of a normal physical examination those recommendations are still relevant. The purpose of this study is to summarized retrospectively the clinical records of all the infants admitted to the pediatric wards in the ten years period since 2000 to 2010 in order to record the incidence of Bacterial Meningitis among infants admitted with the First episode of Febrile Convulsions.

Objective: To evaluate the predisposing factors associated with abnormal laboratory findings in patients who came to the emergency room due to a first seizure. Methods: Patients were divided into separate groups based on normal and abnormal laboratory results for sodium, potassium, calcium, and glucose. The difference in age, gender, whether this was the first attack, whether there was fever, whether there were gastrointestinal symptoms, the duration and pattern of the seizure, and whether there was a seizure at the emergency department, were evaluated.

The project strives to discover novel genetic defects that cause monogenic epilepsy or that genetically modify a preexisting epileptic phenotype. Our main aim is to find genetic causes for the idiopathic West Syndrome (infantile seizures) that are not caused by known cerebral malformation, lissencephaly or metabolic disorders and which have a comparatively benign prognosis. The investigators hypothesize that mutations in genes coding for ion channels or genes that modify the action of ion channels might be causative. For that the investigators will perform a sequence analysis of the coding exons of a large set of genes in all recruited patients and verify found mutations in their parents.

An accelerometer with transmitting ability is worn on the wrist. Data of movements during seizures will be analyzed to upgrade algorithm that will identify seizures.

The main purpose of this study is to validate the ability of the Nelli system (video-based epilepsy examination system) to detect epileptic motor seizure behaviors in patients at rest.