Although infantile spasms can be caused by a variety of etiologies, the clinical features are stereotypical. The neuronal and vascular mechanisms that contribute to the emergence of infantile spasms are not well understood. We performed a multimodal study by simultaneously recording electroencephalogram and functional Near-infrared spectroscopy in an intentionally heterogeneous population of si...

Rotavirus infections are a common cause of gastroenteritis in infants and young children worldwide. Although rotavirus gastroenteritis is usually self-limiting in healthy infants, approximately 33% of cases of severe diarrhoea require hospitalization (1). Small intestinal epithelium dysfunction during rotavirus gastroenteritis is well-documented. Enteric Gram-negative bacteraemia as a complicat...

A convulsion or major fit is a sudden outburst of motor spasm, or involuntary movement, of the whole or of part of the body, usually associated with loss of consciousness. In a minor fit there is a loss or dimming of consciousness without muscular twitching. The mechanism immediately responsible for the fit is generally accepted to be an excessive discharge of cortical neurones, in a state of p...

Five Indian cases of Aicardi syndrome, aged 1-13 years and all with the classic triad of infantile spasm, corpus callosal agenesis and chorioretinal lacunae, were presented. The purpose of this report was to demonstrate the clinical, electroencephalographic (EEG) and radiological spectrum and the treatment outcome of this disorder among the Indians. None of the patient had any family history of...

OBJECTIVE To determine Topiramate efficacy on treatment of infantile spasms and ancillary seizures, and whether there were any improvements on EEG. METHODS A retrospective study of 18 patients with infantile spasms recruited from the Pediatric Unit at King Fahd Hospital of the University, Dammam University, Saudi Arabia was carried out between January 2004 and December 2008. Topiramate was us...

Infantile spasm (IS) is a specific rare type of seizure seen in an epilepsy syndrome of infancy; it is also known as West syndrome and is characterized by developmental regression and a specific pattern on electroencephalography (EEG) testing called hypsarrhythmia (chaotic brain waves). Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is considered a common clinical problem in every day paediatrics clini...

AIM In this retrospective study, we evaluated the clinical responses to antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy in pediatric epilepsy patients treated at a single center. MATERIALS AND METHODS We identified 28 children with intractable epilepsy and 213 patients with drug-responsive epilepsy. RESULTS Univariate analysis showed that age at onset, high (daily) initial seizure frequency, infantile spa...

In order to describe the neurological abnormalities and to identify the gene localisation, we re-evaluated a previously reported family with X linked mental retardation (XLMR). Reliable data were obtained for six of the seven affected males, of whom two had had infantile spasms. Profound MR (IQ<20) was found in one and mild MR (IQ 50-70) in five males. No dysmorphic features, except for macroce...

This is a longitudinal study of facial expression of affect in 28 children with intractable infantile spasms who underwent epilepsy surgery. After a mean follow-up period of 1.8 years, there was a significant increase in positive affect, a significant decrease in neutral affect, and no change in negative affect during a nonverbal communication paradigm. These findings were unrelated to surgical...