title: Vascular malformations and epilepsy: clinical considerations and basic mechanisms.
abstract: Vascular malformations (VMs) are associated with epilepsy. The natural history of the various VMs, clinical presentation, and tendency to provoke epilepsy determine treatment strategies. Investigations have probed the mechanisms of epileptogenesis associated with these lesions. Electrophysiologic changes are associated with epileptogenic cortex adjacent to VMs. Putative pathophysiologic mechanisms of epileptogenesis include neuronal cell loss, glial proliferation and abnormal glial physiology, altered neurotransmitter levels, free radical formation, and aberrant second messenger physiology.
authors.affiliation: Section of Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Kraemer
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Awad
mesh_terms: D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005911:Gliosis / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D006391:Hemangioma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006392:Hemangioma, Cavernous / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D002538:Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon