Approximately half of Dravet syndrome patients experience the morbid outcome of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). The causes behind SUDEP remain largely unknown, and there are no biomarkers that can be used to predict patients who are at increased risk. Now, investigators from Michigan Medicine have found that the high risk for SUDEP in […]
1.11 out of 1,000 children with epilepsy die suddenly each year, according to a Canadian study by CURE grantee Dr. Elizabeth Donner of the University of Toronto.1 Dr. Donner’s estimates confirm 2017 results garnered from the Swedish National Death Registry that also found the annual rate of sudden death to be 1.11 per 1,000 children […]
New stem cell research reveals dangerous cardiac effects of a gene mutation in patients with Dravet syndrome Patients with a rare disease called Dravet syndrome are at heightened risk for sudden unexplained death in epilepsy. Researchers are using stem cells to identify the effects of a gene mutation on the heart, which may lead to […]
There does not appear to be a higher prevalence of cardiac fibrosis among patients with sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) compared with patients with autopsy-defined sudden arrhythmic death (SAD) or traumatic death, according to a study published in Neurology. Using data from the Postmortem Systematic Investigation of Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) study, researchers identified […]
Birthdays. Christmas. New Year’s Eve. All can be times for celebration, but researchers have discovered that such occasions might bring increased risks for patients with epilepsy. These special days and other social events can precede status epilepticus (SE), seizures that last more than 5 minutes or occur in a series without a patient’s complete recovery […]
MRI of the brain can detect potentially life-threatening brainstem damage in patients with epilepsy, suggesting the test could be used as a biomarker to identify those at risk for sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), new research shows. “When we looked at the brain stem of people who died from SUDEP, we saw that […]
