title: Bilateral anterior thalamic nucleus lesions are not protective against seizures in chronic pilocarpine epileptic rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether anterior thalamic nucleus (AN) lesions are protective against spontaneous recurrent seizures in the chronic phase of the pilocarpine model of epilepsy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two groups of rats were treated with bilateral AN radiofrequency thalamotomies or sham surgery 2 weeks after pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus. After the lesions, animals were videotaped from the 2nd to the 8th week after status epilepticus (total 180 h).
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the 6 weeks of observation, no differences in the frequency of spontaneous seizures were found between animals that had bilateral AN lesions (n = 26; 3.1 +/- 0.6 seizures per animal) and controls (n = 25; 3.0 +/- 0.6 seizures per animal; p = 0.8).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that AN thalamotomies were not effective in reducing the frequency of seizures during the chronic phase of the pilocarpine model of epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Departamentode Fisiologia, Escola Paulista de Medicina, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. chamani@uhnres.utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Clement
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hamani
authors.forename: Flavio I S
authors.initials: FI
authors.lastname: Ewerton
authors.forename: Flávia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marcolin de Almeida
authors.forename: Saulo M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bonilha
authors.forename: Luciene
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Covolan
authors.forename: Clarissa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fantin Cavarsan
authors.forename: Gerson
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ballester
authors.forename: Luiz E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Mello
authors.forename: Andres M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lozano