BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Long-term follow-up of children with idiopathic West syndrome (WS) treated with adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) or vigabatrin. METHODS Records of 28 normal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) WS cases were reviewed for seizure development and cognitive outcome in relation to treatment type and lag. RESULTS Average age at disease onset was 5.5 months, and average lag t...

In the days before widespread internet use, iPhones, and iPads, the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology part II oral board examination provided a unique opportunity for examiners to meet, mingle, and network. Sometimes interesting collaborations developed. Such was the case in 1994 when we had the same hour off on Dr. Alan Percy’s child neurology team. We were discussing infantile spasms...

Vigabatrin (gamma-vinyl GABA) is a new anticonvulsive drug that irreversibly inhibits the activity of GABA transaminase. The effect of vigabatrin on neurotransmission-related amino acids in CSF of 28 epileptic patients was studied and the relationship between the amino acid pattern and clinical response during 7 months of administration of vigabatrin. Of this study population, 46% had more than...

OBJECTIVE To assess early visual impairment related to vigabatrin prospectively in patients with and without visual symptoms. BACKGROUND Vigabatrin acts as an inhibitor of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) transaminase. GABA-induced ion transport changes in the retinal pigment epithelium have been described. The electro-oculogram (EOG) is a clinical test that reflects photoreceptor and pigment e...

Experiments using male CD1 mice were carried out to investigate the effects of subchronic (daily administration for 8 days) pretreatments with drugs enhancing GABAergic transmission (diazepam, 10 mg/kg, ip; gabapentin, 100 mg/kg, po; or vigabatrin, 500 mg/kg, po) on pentylenetetrazol (PTZ)-induced seizures, 24 h after the last injection. Subchronic administration of diazepam reduced latencies t...

OBJECTIVE To compare vigabatrin with carbamazepine as monotherapy in newly diagnosed children with partial epilepsy in order to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of both drugs. DESIGN Open and randomized with a 2-year follow-up period. SETTING The Infantile Neuropsychiatric Division of the Regional Pediatric Hospital, Ancona, Italy. PATIENTS Seventy children with newly diagnosed part...

The efficacy and tolerability of vigabatrin as add-on therapy was assessed in patients with uncontrolled partial seizures. Ninety-seven patients entered this seven-centre, double-blind, placebo-crossover study. Vigabatrin (2 g or 3 g) or placebo was administered daily. Vigabatrin was well-tolerated and did not cause clinically significant adverse drug effects when added to established anticonvu...

The severe epilepsies of childhood are described briefly and information available on the efficacy of newly developed antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in their control is reviewed. Therapeutic advances are awaited for early infantile epileptic encephalopathy, early myoclonic encephalopathy, progressive myoclonus epilepsies and Kojewnikow syndrome. West syndrome may respond to vigabatrin, and less pre...

This report describes the long-term follow-up of 56 patients with refractory partial epilepsy who, within 3 months of vigabatrin add-on therapy (3 g/day), showed a reduction in monthly seizure frequency of more than 50%. The short-term (6 months) and long-term (5 years) effects of vigabatrin on seizure frequency in this patient cohort have been published separately. The reduction in seizure fre...