|
Epilepsy In Children
Epilepsy is a disorder in which nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures.During a seizure, a person experiences abnormal behavior, symptoms, and sensations, sometimes including loss of consciousness. There are few symptoms between seizures. A seizure is a single occurrence, whereas epilepsy is a neurological condition characterized by two or more unprovoked seizures (Johns Hopkins Medicine). Epilepsy is the most common childhood brain disorder in the United States. Nearly 3 million people have been diagnosed with this disease, while 450,000 of them are under the age of 17. Two thirds of the child population will overcome the side effects, including seizures, through treatment during adolescence. Some treatments include surgery, medication and therapy, surgery however is only done if the child has drug resistant epilepsy (Rekha Dwivedi, Ph.D. et al.). A doctor will most often diagnose a child with epilepsy, also known as seizure disorder, if the child has one o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain. These episodes can result in physical injuries, either directly such as broken bones or through causing accidents. In epilepsy, seizures tend to recur and may have no immediate underlying cause. Isolated seizures that are provoked by a specific cause such as poisoning are not deemed to represent epilepsy. People with epilepsy may be treated differently in various areas of the world and experience varying degrees of social stigma due to the alarming nature of their symptoms. The underlying mechanism of epileptic seizures is excessive and abnormal neuronal activity in the cortex of the brain which can be observed in the electroencephalogram (EEG) of an individual. The reason this occurs in most cases of epilepsy is u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases. The primary form of fMRI uses the blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) contrast, discovered by Seiji Ogawa in 1990. This is a type of specialized brain and body scan used to map neuron, neural activity in the brain or spinal cord of humans or other animals by imaging the change in blood flow (hemodynamic response) related to energy use by brain cells. Since the early 1990s, fMRI has come to dominate brain mapping research because it does not involve the use of injections, surgery, the ingestion of substances, or exposure to ionizing radiation. This measure is frequently corrupted by noise from various sources; hence, statistical procedures are used to extract the underlying si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hemispherectomy
Hemispherectomy is a neurosurgical procedure in which a cerebral hemisphere (half of the upper brain, or cerebrum) is removed or disconnected that is used to treat a variety of refractory or drug-resistant seizure disorders (epilepsy). Refractory or drug-resistant epilepsy is defined as seizures that fail to be controlled using 2 or more appropriate anti-seizure medications. About one in three patients with epilepsy have drug-resistant epilepsy and of those, about half of them have focal epilepsy that can potentially be treated with epilepsy surgery. In drug-resistant epilepsy where all or most seizures arise from one hemisphere, hemispherectomy is a highly effective procedure producing seizure freedom in about 80-90% of patients. In addition to controlling seizures and as a result of that, improved development and cognition is also very frequently achieved after hemispherectomy. Most patients who qualify for hemispherectomy already have neurological deficits such as hemibody weakne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protein (nutrient)
Proteins are essential nutrients for the human body. They are one of the building blocks of body tissue and can also serve as a fuel source. As a fuel, proteins provide as much energy density as carbohydrates: 4 kcal (17 kJ) per gram; in contrast, lipids provide 9 kcal (37 kJ) per gram. The most important aspect and defining characteristic of protein from a nutritional standpoint is its amino acid composition. Proteins are polymer chains made of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds. During human digestion, proteins are broken down in the stomach to smaller polypeptide chains via hydrochloric acid and protease actions. This is crucial for the absorption of the essential amino acids that cannot be biosynthesized by the body. There are nine essential amino acids which humans must obtain from their diet in order to prevent protein–energy malnutrition and resulting death. They are phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carbohydrate
In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or may not be different from ''n''), which does not mean the H has covalent bonds with O (for example with , H has a covalent bond with C but not with O). However, not all carbohydrates conform to this precise stoichiometric definition (e.g., uronic acids, deoxy-sugars such as fucose), nor are all chemicals that do conform to this definition automatically classified as carbohydrates (e.g. formaldehyde and acetic acid). The term is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide (), a group that includes sugars, starch, and cellulose. The saccharides are divided into four chemical groups: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides and disaccharides, the smallest (lower molecular wei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet is a high- fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that in conventional medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Normally carbohydrates in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is important in fueling brain function. However, if only a little carbohydrate remains in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies, the latter passing into the brain and replacing glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood (a state called ketosis) eventually lowers the frequency of epileptic seizures. Around half of children and young people with epilepsy who have tried some form of this diet saw the number of seizures drop by at least half, and the effect persists after discontinuing the diet. Some evidence shows that adults with epilepsy may benefit from the d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chewable Tablet
A tablet (also known as a pill) is a pharmaceutical oral dosage form (''oral solid dosage'', or OSD) or solid unit dosage form. Tablets may be defined as the solid unit dosage form of medicament or medicaments with suitable excipients. It comprises a mixture of active substances and excipients, usually in powder form, pressed or compacted from a powder into a solid dose. Tablets are prepared either by molding or by compression. The excipients can include diluents, binders or granulating agents, glidants (flow aids) and lubricants to ensure efficient tabletting; disintegrants to promote tablet break-up in the digestive tract; sweeteners or flavours to enhance taste; and pigments to make the tablets visually attractive or aid in visual identification of an unknown tablet. A polymer coating is often applied to make the tablet smoother and easier to swallow, to control the release rate of the active ingredient, to make it more resistant to the environment (extending its shelf lif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anticonvulsant
Anticonvulsants (also known as antiepileptic drugs or recently as antiseizure drugs) are a diverse group of pharmacological agents used in the treatment of epileptic seizures. Anticonvulsants are also increasingly being used in the treatment of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, since many seem to act as mood stabilizers, and for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Anticonvulsants suppress the excessive rapid firing of neurons during seizures. Anticonvulsants also prevent the spread of the seizure within the brain. Conventional antiepileptic drugs may block sodium channels or enhance γ-aminobutyric acid ( GABA) function. Several antiepileptic drugs have multiple or uncertain mechanisms of action. Next to the voltage-gated sodium channels and components of the GABA system, their targets include GABAA receptors, the GAT-1 GABA transporter, and GABA transaminase. Additional targets include voltage-gated calcium channels, SV2A, and α2δ. By blocking sodium or ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetoencephalography
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using very sensitive magnetometers. Arrays of SQUIDs (superconducting quantum interference devices) are currently the most common magnetometer, while the SERF (spin exchange relaxation-free) magnetometer is being investigated for future machines. Applications of MEG include basic research into perceptual and cognitive brain processes, localizing regions affected by pathology before surgical removal, determining the function of various parts of the brain, and neurofeedback. This can be applied in a clinical setting to find locations of abnormalities as well as in an experimental setting to simply measure brain activity. History MEG signals were first measured by University of Illinois physicist David Cohen in 1968, before the availability of the SQUID, using a copper induction coil as the d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wada Test
The Wada test, also known as the intracarotid sodium amobarbital procedure (ISAP), establishes cerebral language and memory representation of each hemisphere. Method Medical professionals conduct the test with the patient awake. Essentially, they introduce a barbiturate (usually sodium amobarbital) into one of the internal carotid arteries via a cannula or intra-arterial catheter from the femoral artery. They inject the drug into one hemisphere at a time into the right or left internal carotid artery. If the right carotid is injected, the right side of the brain is inhibited and cannot communicate with the left side. The effect shuts down any language and/or memory function in that hemisphere in order to evaluate the other hemisphere ("half of the brain"). An EEG recording at the same time confirms that the injected side of the brain is inactive as a neurologist performs a neurological examination. The neurologist engages the patient in a series of language and memory related te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electrocorticography
Electrocorticography (ECoG), or intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG), is a type of electrophysiological monitoring that uses electrodes placed directly on the exposed surface of the brain to record electrical activity from the cerebral cortex. In contrast, conventional electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes monitor this activity from outside the skull. ECoG may be performed either in the operating room during surgery (intraoperative ECoG) or outside of surgery (extraoperative ECoG). Because a craniotomy (a surgical incision into the skull) is required to implant the electrode grid, ECoG is an invasive procedure. History ECoG was pioneered in the early 1950s by Wilder Penfield and Herbert Jasper, neurosurgeons at the Montreal Neurological Institute. The two developed ECoG as part of their groundbreakinMontreal procedure a surgical protocol used to treat patients with severe epilepsy. The cortical potentials recorded by ECoG were used to identify epileptogenic zones †... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Febrile Seizure
A febrile seizure, also known as a fever fit or febrile convulsion, is a seizure associated with an increased body temperature but without any intracranial infection. Febrile seizures affect 2–7% of children and are more common in boys than girls. They most commonly occur in children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years with a higher incidence around 18 month of age. Most seizures last less than five minutes, and the child typically recovers quickly. There are two types: simple febrile seizures and complex febrile seizures Simple febrile seizures involve an otherwise healthy child with a single, one episode of generalized seizure lasting less than 15 minutes. Complex febrile seizures have one of more of the following: focal symptoms such as jerking of only one side of the body, duration of > 15 minutes, or 2 or more seizures within 24 hours. About 60-70% are classified as simple febrile seizures and 30-40% complex. Febrile seizures are triggered by fever, typically due to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
