Current Research Projects in Pediatric Epilepsy

Clinical Trials of Anti-epileptic Drugs

• Childhood Absence Epilepsy: Treatment and Pharmacogenetics -

  Ellen Albers, R.N., C.N.S., Nurse Coordinator

Epidemiology & Health Services Research

• Epidemiology of status epilepticus among hospitalized patients in the United States
• The impact of status epilepticus upon the risk of death among hospitalized children and adults
• Utility of a new-onset seizure clinic

Clinical Epilepsy

• Predictors of outcome among children and adolescents who have epilepsy surgery - Dr. Arnold,
• Predictors of intractability in children with partial epilepsy - Dr. Arnold,
• Seizure relapse after discontinuation of the ketogenic diet - Dr. Arnold
• Language regression and EEG features of Landau-Kleffner syndrome - Dr. Arnold
• Outcome of trans-parahippocampal selective amygdalo-hippocampectomy for medial temporal lobe epilepsy in children - Drs. Park, Blackburn
• Genetics of Epilepsy - Dr. Gurnett
• Cerebrospinal fluid markers of brain injury following seizures in children - Dr. Wong
• Neonatal EEG - Dr. Zempel

Basic Neuroscience Research in Epilepsy

• Cellular mechanisms of the ketogenic diet - Drs. Thio, Yamada
• The role of glycine in normal and abnormal synaptic transmission in cortex - Dr. Thio
• The role of astrocytes in epileptogenesis - Drs. Ess, Wong
• Neuronal injury from seizures - Drs. Wong, Yamada
• Magnetic resonance imaging of seizures - Dr. Zempel
• Focal cooling as a novel therapy for epilepsy - Dr. Rothman, Smyth

RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY PEDIATRIC EPILEPSY CENTER MEMBERS

Gurnett CA, Landt M, Wong M. Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid glial fibrillary acidic protein after seizures in children. Epilepsia 2003; 44:1455-1458.

Hill MW, Wong M, Amarakone , Rothman SM. Rapid cooling aborts seizure-like activity in rodent hippocampal-entorhinal slices. Epilepsia 2000; 41:1241-1248.

Karkar KM, Thio LL, Yamada KA. Effects of seven clinically important antiepileptic drugs on inhibitory glycine receptor currents in hippocampal neurons. Epilepsy Res 2004 58:27-35.

Kerrigan JF, Shields WD, Nelson TY, Bluestone DL, Dodson WE, Bourgeois BF, Pellock JM, Morton LD, Monaghan EP. Ganaxolone for treating intractable infantile spasms: a multicenter, open-label, add-on trial. Epilepsy Res 2000; 42:133-9

Robinson S, Park TS, Blackburn LB, Bourgeois BF, Arnold ST, Dodson WE. Transparahippocampal selective amygdalohippocampectomy in children and adolescents: efficacy of the procedure and cognitive morbidity in patients. J Neurosurg 2000;93:402-409.

Shinnar S, Rapin I, Arnold S, Tuchman RF, Shulman L, Ballaban-Gil K, Maw M, Deuel RK, Volkmar FR. Language regression in childhood. Pediatr Neurol 2001;24:185-191.

Smyth MD, Barbaro NM and Baraban SC. Antiepileptic drug resistance in the MAM model of dysplasia-associated epilepsy. Epilepsy Research 50(3):251-264; 2002.

Smyth MD, Tubbs RS, Bebin ME, Grabb PA and Blount JP. Complications of vagal nerve stimulation for epilepsy in the pediatric population. Journal of Neurosurgery 99(3):500-503, 2003.

Thio LL, Wong M, Yamada KA. Ketone bodies do not directly alter excitatory or inhibitory hippocampal synaptic transmission. Neurology 2000;54:325-331.

Trevathan E, Murphy CC, Yeargin-Allsopp M. The descriptive epidemiology of infantile spasms among Atlanta children. Epilepsia 1999;40(6):748-751.

Trevathan E, Gilliam F. Lost years: delayed referral for surgically treatable epilepsy. Neurology. 2003; 61:432-3

Uhlmann EJ, Wong M, Baldwin RL, Bajenaru ML, Onda H, Kwiatkowski DJ, Yamada KA, Gutmann DH. Astrocyte-specific TSC1 conditional knockout mice exhibit abnormal neuronal organization and seizures. Ann Neurol 2002; 52:285-296.

Wong M, Ess K, Landt M. Cerebrospinal fluid neuron-specific enolase following seizures in children: role of etiology. J Child Neurol 2002; 17:261-264.

Wong M, Schlaggar BL, Landt M. Postictal cerebrospinal fluid abnormalities in children. J Pediatr 2001;138:373-377.

Wong M, Wozniak M, Yamada KA. An animal model of generalized non-convulsive status epilepticus: immediate characteristics and long-term effects. Exp Neurol 2003; 183:87-99.

Wong M, Ess KE, Uhlmann EJ, Jansen LA, Li W, Crino PB, Mennerick S, Yamada KA, Gutmann DH. Impaired astrocyte glutamate transport in a mouse epilepsy model of tuberous sclerosis complex. Ann Neurol 2003; 54:251-256.

CLINICAL TRIALS

The Pediatric Epilepsy Center conducts clinical trials of newer anti-epileptic drugs and other newer therapies for epilepsy in children. All ongoing studies may not be listed on this webpage.

Please call 314-454-6120 for more information.

Childhood Absence Epilepsy: Treatment and Pharmacogenetics
Ellen Albers, R.N., C.N.S., Nurse Coordinator
Please contact Ms. Albers at 314-454-4089 for more information.