Malformation of cortical development in adult patients.
Few studies have focused on the clinical, neurophysiological and prognostic features of adult epileptic patients with malformation of cortical development. We reviewed the clinical data of a series of sixty adult epileptic patients with different types of malformation of cortical development, who had been followed at the Epilepsy Centre of the Department of Neurological Sciences of the University of Bologna, with particular attention to age at seizure onset, mental retardation, response to therapy, and EEG features. The heterogeneity of our population, especially when divided into the different groups of malformation of cortical development, precluded any general conclusions, but we stress the following aspects: 1). epilepsy due to malformation of cortical development may begin in adolescents and young adults; 2). epileptic seizures with clinical and polygraphic features of infantile spasms may persist into adulthood; 3). complex cortical malformation is not necessarily associated with severe epileptic encephalopathy. In periventricular nodular heterotopias, the largest in our series (nine patients), age at onset of seizures, response to therapy and mental deterioration differed according to the presence of nodules confined to the ventricular wall ('pure' form) or periventricular nodules associated with other cerebral cortical malformations ('plus' form).
Tinuper
Paolo
P
Department of Neurological Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy. tinuper@neuro.unibo.it
D'Orsi
Giuseppe
G
Bisulli
Francesca
F
Zaniboni
Anna
A
Piraccini
Antonella
A
Bernardi
Bruno
B
Baruzzi
Agostino
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000002:abnormalities*; D002828:Choristoma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000209:etiology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index