New University of Virginia School of Medicine insights into how the brain responds to seizures could facilitate the development of much-needed treatments for the third of patients who don’t respond to existing options. The research, from the labs of UVA’s Ukpong B. Eyo, PhD, and Edward Perez-Reyes, PhD, suggests that immune cells called microglia play important, beneficial […]
Epileptic patients in the Seizure Monitoring Unit (SMU) at the Foothills Medical Centre regularly spend days in isolation as doctors monitor their symptoms, but volunteers are stepping up to provide companionship and critical support when it’s needed most. The SMU is a clinical space with four treatment beds where the brain waves of patients are […]
Alumni family takes on rare disease research to cure their child. There’s an old saying in medicine when diagnosing patients: “When you hear hoof-beats, think horses, not zebras.” But our sweet baby boy, Tristan, is a zebra. He’s one of only 50 in the world. There are 20,000 genes and 3.2 billion nucleotides, and he […]
Stigma affects all aspects of epilepsy care, from diagnosis and treatment to nationwide legislation and budget allocations. It affects the lives of people with epilepsy when they are not given equal access to education, employment, and social opportunities. A population-based study in the United States found that one-third of respondents identified stigma-;not seizures-;as the most […]
Key takeaways: Human GABAergic interneurons were implanted in two patients with drug-refractory focal epilepsy. Preliminary results show participants have experienced greater than 90% seizure reduction since surgery. BOSTON — Implantation of GABAergic interneuron cells in two patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy resulted in significant seizure reduction, according to preliminary data presented at the American Academy […]
Epilepsies are chronic neurological disorders in which large groups of neurons firing at the same time generate electrical activity that causes seizures and involuntary movements. They are one of the most common brain diseases in children and, in almost a quarter of cases, patients do not respond to standard medical treatments. Life-threatening treatment-resistant epilepsy often results […]
