Active clinical trials for "Epilepsy"

Some antiepileptic drugs are found to have hormonal side effects. We want to study possible hormonal side effects of the relatively new antiepileptic drug; levetiracetam and compare it to the older drugs; lamotrigine and carbamazepine. The participants are going to fill in a questionnaire and we will collect blood samples from them, to analyse hormones.

The purpose of this observational study is to evaluate the safety of topiramate in adults and children with epilepsy (or seizures) who have not received or have not responded to treatment with previous antiepileptic medication.

The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy and tolerability in "real-world" clinical practice, of adjunctive zonisamide treatment in adult patients with developmental disabilities and epilepsy.

What are the effects of the currently used AEDs on bone mineralization in children and adolescents between the ages of 8 to 18? This is a pilot observational study using DEXA scans to measure bone mineral density in 100 patients The primary objective is to collect preliminary data on bone mineral density, body weight, dietary calcium intake, and activity level.

This study will evaluate how the state of being completely deprived of sleep has an effect on recordings of magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG), in relation to how alert someone is and how sleepy someone perceives himself or herself to be. EEG measures electronic potential differences on the scalp. On the other hand, MEG is a non-invasive technique for recording the activity of neurons in the brain, through recording of magnetic fields caused by synchronized neural currents. It has the ability to detect seizures. Because magnetic signals of the brain vary, this technique must balance two key problems: weakness of the signal and strength of the noise. The EEG is sensitive to extra-cellular volume currents, whereas the MEG primarily registers intra-cellular currents. Because electrical fields are quite dependent on the conductive properties of the tissues, and magnetic fields are significantly less distorted by tissue, the MEG has better spatial resolution. There is a great deal of evidence that EEG and MEG provide complementary data about underlying currents of ions. The complex relationship of sleep and epilepsy is well known. Sleep has been used for many years as a powerful EEG activator. Many researchers have supported the hypothesis that there is a specific activating effect of sleep deprivation on epileptic discharges. Sleep deprivation is defined as a sleepless state of longer than 24 hours. The increased use of MEG in diagnosis could improve the procedure for evaluating patients before surgery for epilepsy, by making invasive studies less necessary. Patients 18 years of age or older, with a diagnosis of epilepsy and with a documented last routine EEG (at least 2 weeks earlier) and routine EEG on the day of a baseline MEG-EEG without interictal epileptiform discharges (IEDs) may be eligible for this study. Participants will be rated according to the Epworth, Stanford, and Karolinska Sleepiness Scales, to determine their subjective sleepiness. They will be randomly assigned to stay awake all night or sleep in the hospital overnight. That is, a sleep deprivation and non-sleep deprivation synchronized MEG-EEG recording will be performed in random order. Then the sequence of sleep deprivation and non-sleep deprivation will be reversed within 14 to 21 days. During the recordings, the patient will either sit or lie with his or her head in a helmet covering the entire head, with openings for the eyes and ears. Brain magnetic fields will be recorded with a 275-channel OMEGA system. Throughout the session, visual and two-way audio communication will be maintained with the patient. Recording sessions will last 90 to 180 minutes, with the patient allowed to take breaks after at least 10 minutes in a scanner. Attempts will be made to encourage patients to stay awake and sleep for about the same amount of time during each recording, to acquire comparable amounts of sleep and awake recordings.

This study will measure and compare hormone levels in women with catamenial epilepsy (epilepsy in which seizures are more frequent during menstrual periods), women with seizures not related to their menstrual cycle, and normal control subjects. It will determine whether there are differences among the three groups in their hormone levels or in how fast the levels change. It will also examine what relationship, if any, exists between hormone changes and seizures in women with catamenial epilepsy. The hormones under study include the gonadal hormones estrone, estradiol and progesterone, and the neuroactive steroids allopregnanolone, pregnenolone, and dehydroepiandrosterone. Women who meet the following criteria may be eligible for this 3-month study: Between 18 and 45 years of age, with catamenial epilepsy Between 18 and 45 years of age, with seizures, but not catamenial epilepsy Between 18 and 45 years of age, without seizures All participants will have a physical examination at the beginning of the study, at each clinic visit, and at completion or withdrawal from the study. In addition, they will undergo the following procedures: Baseline Monitoring For the first 2 months, all participants will keep a diary of their temperature and onset of menses. Women with epilepsy will also record their seizures. Electroencephalography (EEG) Healthy volunteers will have a 45-minute EEG (recording of the electrical activity of the brain) at the beginning of each menstrual cycle and each day during the menses. Women with epilepsy will have continuous EEG monitoring for 8 days, beginning 5 days before their menstrual period is expected. The continuous monitoring can be done on an outpatient basis, using a portable EEG recording device, or as an inpatient, with admission to the hospital for the 8 days of recording. Blood Sampling All participants will have a small blood sample (2 teaspoons) drawn once a day on days 10, 14, 17, 19 and 21 of their menstrual cycle and three times a day on day 6 and for a period of 8 days, starting 5 days before the expected menses and continuing for 3 days of the next cycle. For the days with three blood draws, a small needle that can stay in place for up to 72 hours will be placed in the arm to avoid the discomfort of multiple needle sticks.

Patients in this study will undergo PET scans (a type of nuclear imaging test) to look for abnormalities in certain brain proteins associated with seizures. Studies in animals have shown that serotonin-a chemical messenger produced by the body-attaches to proteins on brain cells called 5HT1A receptors and changes them in some way that may help control seizures. There is little information on these changes, however. A new compound that is highly sensitive to 5HT1A, will be used in PET imaging to measure the level of activity of these receptors and try to detect abnormalities. Changes in receptor activity may help determine where in the brain the seizures are originating. Additional PET scans will be done to measure the amount of blood flow to the brain and the rate at which the brain uses glucose-a sugar that is the brain's main fuel. Blood flow measurement is used to calculate the distribution of serotonin receptors, and glucose use helps determine how seizures affect brain function. The information gained from the study will be used to try to help guide the patient's therapy and determine if surgery might be beneficial in controlling the patient's seizures.

This study aims to use radiomics analysis and deep learning approaches for seizure focus detection in pediatric patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Ten positron emission tomograph (PET) radiomics features related to pediatric temporal bole epilepsy are extracted and modelled, and the Siamese network is trained to automatically locate epileptogenic zones for assistance of diagnosis.

The retrospective pre-post observational study was conducted to evaluate the real-world evidence of efficacy and tolerability of generic levetiracetam (oral tablet) which was switched from original levetiracetam (oral tablet) in patients with epilepsy at the national hospital for neurology and neurosurgery in Thailand. Epilepsy patients who received generic substitution to original levetiracetam at the same dose and had stable conditions of seizure were only included. In the period of 6 months, the investigators assessed the change of seizure frequency, the incidence of hospitalization due to breakthrough seizure, the incidence of adverse events and the incidence of composite outcomes related to dosage adjustment of antiepileptic drugs.

The primary purpose of this study is to assess the retention rate of perampanel as a reliable proxy for overall effectiveness and tolerability in participants aged at least 12 years who are prescribed perampanel (for partial onset seizures [POS] with or without secondary generalization [SG] or for primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures [PGTCS] associated with idiopathic generalized epilepsy [IGE] as first adjunctive to antiepileptic drug (AED) monotherapy as part of their routine clinical care.