Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0036572 (seizures)
 80,221 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

An aura is generally understood to be the beginning of a seizure. Yet, following successful surgery for intractable epilepsy, patients may have persistent auras even though they are otherwise seizure free. Ninety patients with intractable seizures and auras underwent resective surgery. Forty-three patients had hippocampal sclerosis and 47 had temporal or extratemporal lesions such as glial tumors or vascular malformations. The semiology of the auras was found to have value in localization but not lateralization of the pathology. Epigastric auras as well as gustatory and olfactory auras were significantly more frequent in patients with hippocampal sclerosis than in those with temporal or extratemporal lesions. Auras of vertigo or dizziness were most frequent in patients with extratemporal pathology. There was a significant difference between the pathology groups in the efficacy of resection in eliminating the auras. Of the patients with hippocampal sclerosis who were rendered seizure free, 18.9% had persistent auras, whereas only one (2.6%) of the patients with temporal or extratemporal lesions who were rendered seizure free had persistent auras. These findings suggest that for patients with hippocampal sclerosis an anatomical dissociation between seizure and aura may occur, whereas this dissociation is not present in patients with lesions. Patients suspected of having hippocampal sclerosis should be counseled preoperatively as to the significant likelihood of persistent auras even if seizures are successfully abolished.
 ...
PMID:The anatomy of epileptic auras: focal pathology and surgical outcome. 778 51

The authors studied 65 patients with intractable seizures and glial tumors who were treated between 1978 and 1991. Most of the tumors were in the temporal (63%) or occipital lobe (18%) and were commonly found in limbic or perilimbic neocortical locations. The majority of these gliomas (83%) involved the gray matter of allocortex, neocortex, or transitional cortex. These tumors spanned a wide range of glial differentiation: Most (61%) were low-grade astrocytomas, but 17% were histologically malignant. However, their biological behavior was strikingly indolent, as suggested by a stable clinical history during many years of chronic seizures (mean, 15 yr). The median follow-up time since the onset of symptoms in these patients was 17.2 years, and only one patient in the entire series died from the tumor. The mainstay of the surgical treatment was resection of the gliomas to histologically confirmed, tumor-free margins. The resection was not guided by intraoperative electrocorticography. Of the 60 patients who had a postoperative follow-up of more than 1 year, 82% were seizure free. Of the 31 patients who had auras with their seizures, 87% did not retain their auras postoperatively. Of the patients who were rendered seizure free, only one patient continued to have auras. Failure in seizure control was associated with an incomplete resection of the lesion. In patients with temporal lobe tumors, seizure outcome was not significantly related to the extent of medial temporal resection. It is suggested that limbic and perilimbic gliomas associated with intractable seizures constitute a distinct clinicopathologic group of glial tumors that involve the gray matter, arise in a young host, and exhibit stable biological behavior over many years. Surgical treatment that includes complete resection of these tumors can achieve excellent seizure control.
 ...
PMID:Limbic and neocortical gliomas associated with intractable seizures: a distinct clinicopathological group. 805 78

A patient with a remote infarct, seizures, mild hemiparesis, and dysphasia became obtunded over four months and died. Computerized tomography (CT) over 5 years showed a consistent, large, wedge-shaped left hemisphere hypodensity with a central calcification, but without signs of mass effect. This was interpreted as an infarct of the left middle cerebral artery territory. Post-mortem examination of the brain revealed the entire area appearing as infarct on CT was a gliosarcoma. We suspect that the unusual CT appearance of the lesion was likely caused by multiple pathologies: a low grade glioma transforming into a gliosarcoma that was able to spread throughout the area of infarct encephalomalacia without revealing a typical CT appearance of mass effect. The patient's brief period of deterioration probably coincided with transformation of the tumor into a gliosarcoma. The variable CT characteristics of gliosarcomas are reviewed.
 ...
PMID:Unusual evolution and computerized tomographic appearance of a gliosarcoma. 808 41

We report 2 patients with transient abnormalities on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) associated with partial status epilepticus (SE). A man with a 4-month history of partial seizures had complex partial SE for 9 days, with left temporal maximum on ictal EEG. Left temporal lobe T2 signal was increased on MRI during SE, but cerebral MRI was normal 9 weeks later. A woman with "cryptogenic" temporal lobe epilepsy for 16 years had complex partial SE for 1 week, with right temporal maximum on ictal EEG. T2 Signal was increased over the entire right temporal lobe, extending into the insula, without mass effect, on MRI 1 month after SE ended. Repeat MRI 1 month later showed marked decrease in volume of increased T2 intensity, without gadolinium enhancement, but with mild mass effect over the right anterioinferomesial temporal areas. A gemistocytic astrocytoma was resected. Focal cerebral MRI abnormalities consistent with cerebral edema may be due to partial SE but also may indicate underlying glioma, even in long-standing partial epilepsy. Focal structural imaging changes consistent with neoplasm should be followed to full resolution after partial SE.
 ...
PMID:Focal cerebral magnetic resonance changes associated with partial status epilepticus. 811 55

The authors present their experience with six children who developed anaplastic astrocytomas after receiving treatment for low-grade astrocytomas. Five children were from a series of 55 children with optic chiasmatic-hypothalamic gliomas who have been studied since 1976. The sixth child initially had a low-grade astrocytoma of the thalamus. The mean age of the children at initial presentation was 5.3 years. Five children were treated with surgery and radiation therapy; one child with a chiasmatic-hypothalamic glioma received radiation therapy alone. The amount of external radiation therapy used in all children was 50-52.5 Gy delivered in standard fractionations over approximately 6 weeks to include the volume of the original tumor plus a margin of 2 cm. The time to anaplastic transformation varied between 2 and 10 years (mean, 6.4 years). At tumor recurrence, the children had seizures or symptoms and signs of raised intracranial pressure. The location of the second tumor in all patients was either at the primary site or within the field of radiation therapy. Five of the six children underwent a second craniotomy and subtotal resection of their malignant gliomas. One child had positive cerebrospinal fluid cytology and multiple intraspinal metastatic tumor nodules detected by magnetic resonance imaging. On histopathological examination, four children had anaplastic astrocytoma, and two had glioblastoma multiforme. Four of the six children have died of their anaplastic astrocytomas (mean time from diagnosis of anaplastic astrocytoma to death, 10 months). Two children underwent chemotherapy and spinal irradiation for their anaplastic astrocytomas, and are currently alive and undergoing treatment. The possible mechanisms by which anaplastic tumors have developed in children treated previously for low-grade astrocytomas is discussed. The data suggest that radiation therapy may have played an integral role in the genesis of anaplastic astrocytomas in these children.
 ...
PMID:Development of anaplastic changes in low-grade astrocytomas of childhood. 812 71

Detailed preoperative electroencephalographic (EEG) studies are now recommended for children with seizures and cortical tumors to define seizure foci prior to surgery. To develop a historical perspective for better evaluation of results from series reporting tumor removal combined with resection of seizure foci, the authors reviewed seizure outcome in 60 children with seizures and low-grade neoplasms treated consecutively since 1981 by surgical resection without concomitant EEG monitoring or electrocortical mapping. Forty-seven of the 60 tumors were totally or near-totally resected; 45 patients were seizure-free and two were significantly improved 1 year following surgery. Of the 50 children in this series with more than five seizures prior to surgery, 36 were seizure-free, two were significantly improved, and 12 were not improved. Factors associated with poor seizure control included a parietal tumor location, a partial tumor resection, and a history of seizures for more than 1 year prior to surgery. The children at highest risk for poor seizure control at 2 years had experienced seizures for more than 1 year prior to surgery and had undergone partial resection of their parietal low-grade glial tumors or gangliogliomas. In contradistinction, the best seizure control was seen in patients with totally resected low-grade gliomas or gangliogliomas who had experienced seizures for less than 1 year (concordance rates for being seizure-free ranged from 78% to 86%). Long-term seizure control remained excellent. These results suggest that seizure control can be obtained 2 years following tumor surgery in the majority of children with presumed tumors after extensive tumor resection without concomitant EEG monitoring or electrocortical mapping.
 ...
PMID:Seizure control following tumor surgery for childhood cortical low-grade gliomas. 818 81

We identified 39 patients with chronic epilepsy (seizures > or = 2 years) proven to have primary brain tumors. These cases represent approximately 12% of the surgery cases for epilepsy in the same period. Mean age of seizure onset was 13.2 years: mean duration before operation was 10.5 years. Thirty-eight of 39 had normal neurologic examination. Twenty-six tumors were temporal, 7 were frontal, 4 were parietal, and 2 were occipital. Nine of 26 (34.6%) of the temporal group had contralateral interictal EEG spikes. Pathology was 15 ganglioglioma, 13 low-grade astroctoma, 4 oligodendroglioma, 2 low-grade mixed glioma, 1 pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma, 2 dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor, and 1 ependymoma. Postoperative seizure frequency (minimum follow-up 6 months) ranged from 15 to 16 seizure-free auras only in patients with temporal tumors and total gross tumor removal (mean follow-up 28 months) to 0 of 6 seizure-free in patients with extratemporal tumors who underwent subtotal resection or biopsy.
 ...
PMID:Chronic intractable epilepsy as the only symptom of primary brain tumor. 824 54

We report a patient with selective short-term memory disturbance caused by a glioma in the left temporal-parietal lobe. The patient was a 40-year-old right-handed housewife who complained of difficulty in memorizing series of numbers. She was working as a car dealer. She was well until 6 months prior to the present admission when she noted a difficulty in memorizing series of numbers such when telephone numbers and car registration numbers. She had to write them down as her customers told them to her. On admission, she was alert and oriented to all spheres. She was mentally sound without dementia. She did not show aphasia, apraxia, or agnosia, except for brief periods of seizures in which she became unable to speech. Neuropsychological examination revealed that she had difficulty in repeating and dictating series of numbers and meaningless kana words. However, she could easily pick up the correct series of numbers or kana words among multiple choices presented visually. Thus it was clear that her problem was not the disturbance of auditory input nor expression, but a selective impairment of short-term memory. She could memorize the same stimuli when visually presented. Therefore, her problem was thought to be a disturbance of auditory short-term memory of meaningless words. After resection of her tumor, she developed transient amnesic aphasia, which improved a year later. She was examined again in her memory function. In the task of visual stimuli, we presented her a card in which a series of numbers or a nonsense syllable was written for 5 seconds and asked her to remember them.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
 ...
PMID:[A case of selective short-term memory disturbance due to a glioma in the left temporo-parietal lobe]. 834 99

Between July, 1984, and October, 1988, 263 patients (163 male, 100 female), aged from 4 to 83 years (mean 52 years), with malignant brain gliomas underwent surgical procedures: stereotactic biopsy in 160 and resection in 103 patients. There were 170 grade IV astrocytomas, 17 grade IV mixed oligoastrocytomas, 44 grade III astrocytomas, 22 grade III mixed oligoastrocytomas, and 10 malignant oligodendrogliomas. Overall median survival time was 30.1 weeks for grade IV gliomas, 87.7 weeks for grade III gliomas, and 171.3 weeks for malignant oligodendrogliomas. Multivariate analysis in 218 newly diagnosed cases revealed that the variables most strongly correlated with survival time were: tumor grade, patient age, seizures as a first symptom, a Karnofsky Performance Scale score of less than 70%, tumor resection, and a radiation therapy dose greater than 50 Gy. The proportions of patients receiving tumor resection versus biopsy in each of these prognosis factor groups were similar. Since most of the 22 patients with midline and brain-stem tumors were treated with biopsy alone, these were excluded. Considering 196 newly diagnosed patients with cortical and subcortical tumors, grade IV glioma patients undergoing resection of the contrast-enhancing mass (as evidenced on computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging) and postoperative external beam radiation therapy lived longer than those undergoing biopsy only and radiation therapy (median survival time 50.6 weeks and 33.0 weeks, respectively; Smirnov test, p = 0.0380). However, survival in patients with resected grade III gliomas was no better than in those with biopsied grade III lesions (p = 0.746). The authors conclude that, in selected grade IV gliomas, resection of the contrast-enhancing mass followed by radiation therapy is associated with longer survival times than radiation therapy after biopsy alone.
 ...
PMID:Resection, biopsy, and survival in malignant glial neoplasms. A retrospective study of clinical parameters, therapy, and outcome. 846 7

The sensitivity of three scales of performance and handicap to the presence and development of epilepsy in patients with brain tumours was studied. Two hypothetical cases had equivalent disability, in one case due to epilepsy and in the other to physical impairment. The second case later developed epilepsy. All consultant neurologists and neurosurgeons in Scotland were asked to grade the cases using three scales commonly used for patients with cerebral glioma. Consultants rated the patient with epilepsy alone as being less disabled and handicapped than the patient with physical impairment without seizures (sign test p < 0.003). At best 21% of clinicians (p = 0.03) were able to report a change in performance score in the second case when seizures developed. These scales do not reflect changes in handicap and performance associated with tumour associated epilepsy. Clinical trial protocols for treatments for brain tumours must state how performance and handicap related to epilepsy will be measured.
 ...
PMID:The effect of tumour associated epilepsy on performance/handicap scales used in cerebral glioma. 856 38


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next >>