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An eight-year-old boy with intractable seizures

Article Abstract:

A child with seizures nonresponsive to medication was diagnosed as having focal cortical dysplasia. Focal cortical dysplasia is abnormal brain cell development, and improvements in imaging technology are finding that it may be the underlying cause of intractable seizures in more children than previously suspected. Epileptic episodes began at age four, and by the time the child was eight, seizures were frequent and uncontrollable with medication. Seizures were focused in the temporal lobe of the brain, which was removed. This cured the seizures. Microscopic analysis of tissue samples from the temporal lobe revealed oversized, abnormally arranged nerve cells, confirming the diagnosis.

Abnormalities, Causes of, Cerebral cortex, Dysplasia, Seizures (Medicine)

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A 34-year-old woman with confusion and visual loss during pregnancy

Article Abstract:

A 34-year-old woman was admitted to a hospital when she became confused and began experiencing visual problems. She had many features of dementia and could not use her left side. An MRI scan did not reveal a tumor but did show disease of the white matter of the brain. Analysis of a brain biopsy revealed that she had a brain inflammation called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. This is often a complication of measles, and antibodies against the measles virus were found in her blood and cerebrospinal fluid. She was treated with injections of interferon alpha-2b.

Complications and side effects, Measles, Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis

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Epilepsy

Article Abstract:

The diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy are reviewed. Topics include the primary types of seizures, electroencephalographic studies, laboratory tests, neuroimaging, anticonvulsants and their side effects, and when to stop treatment.

Care and treatment, Epilepsy

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