title: Epileptic seizures, epilepsy and epileptic syndromes in newborns: a nosological approach to 94 new cases by the 2001 proposed diagnostic scheme for people with epileptic seizures and with epilepsy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the advantages of the 2001 ILAE proposed diagnostic scheme for classification of newborns with epileptic seizures over the 1989 ILAE classification.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clinical features, seizure semiology and duration, neurological evaluation, ictal and interictal EEG, brain imaging and outcome at the end of the neonatal period (44 weeks post-conceptional age) of 94 newborns with EEG confirmed seizures were analyzed. The 2001 ILAE classification was applied where possible.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty patients died before the end of the neonatal period. In the remaining patients, applying axis 3, we classified 54 newborns as having epileptic seizures that do not require a diagnosis of epilepsy; 14 as symptomatic partial epilepsy; 5 within the neonatal epileptic syndromes and one as benign neonatal seizures (NS). Axis 4 in all newborns provided a valuable tool in order to better define the individual patient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared to the 1989 ILAE classification, which allowed a syndromic diagnosis in only 6/94 patients, the remaining being classified as Epilepsies and Syndromes undetermined whether focal or generalized, the 2001 ILAE diagnostic scheme, applied at the end of the neonatal period, offers a variety of approaches to classification, allowing an early distinction between epilepsy and single or isolated clusters of seizures, with therapeutic and prognostic implications.
authors.affiliation: U.O. Neurologia-Neurofisiopatologia, ICP Clinica Mangiagalli, Via Commenda 12, 20122 Milano, Italy. m.mastrangelo@icp.mi.it
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mastrangelo
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Lierde
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bray
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pastorino
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marini
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mosca
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009460:Neurologic Examination / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013577:Syndrome; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods