title: Intermittent symptoms in neurocysticercosis: could they be epileptic?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Some patients with neurocysticercosis (NCC) develop perilesional gliosis during the course of healing and carry poor prognosis for the seizure control. We evaluated the clinical status of these patients during complete control of their original seizures on anti-epileptic drugs (AED).
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 172 patients with solitary NCC, 45 with perilesional gliosis as visible on magnetization transfer spin echo (MTSE) magnetic resonance imaging and 127 without gliosis, for any abnormal symptom during the course of their "seizure-free" period. All of them received optimum doses of AED to control the original seizures.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with gliosis had high incidence of abnormal symptoms with or without corresponding abnormalities on surface electroencephalogram (EEG). These symptoms disappeared on increasing the dose or adding a new AED. The symptoms, which were transient episodic in nature, included heaviness, dystonic posturing, weightlessness, numbness and alien limb phenomenon on the side of the body contralateral to cerebral lesion, and headache.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with NCC who develop perilesional gliosis during the process of healing tend to suffer from disturbing intermittent symptoms during their apparent control of seizures. The symptoms are controllable with increased dosage of previously prescribed or addition of another AED. As these symptoms could possibly be epileptic in nature, their identification and treatment may have a bearing on long-term seizure control after stopping AED therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Raebareli Road, Lucknow 226014, Uttar Pradesh, India. spradhan@sgpgi.ac.in
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pradhan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005911:Gliosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020019:Neurocysticercosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012640:Seizures / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants