title: Seizures in acute childhood stroke.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the risk of seizures in children with acute stroke and identify factors predicting their later risk of epilepsy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data for patients >3.5 years of age at a tertiary care children's hospital with acute stroke were collected and reviewed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-seven patients were identified (mean age, 8.4 years); 21% had clinical seizures. An additional 10% of patients had a clinical seizure during the acute hospitalization. Status epilepticus was common in infants and patients with cortical strokes. Non-convulsive status epilepticus was captured only in patients with prolonged electroencephalograms and always within 24 hours of monitoring. Six months after their stroke, 24% of our patients had epilepsy, all of whom experienced seizures at initial presentation with stroke.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our series of pediatric patients with stroke, most of the clinical seizures occurred within the first 24 hours of presentation and did not vary in stroke subtype. Status epilepticus was common, especially in infants. Epilepsy had a high likelihood of developing in the next 6 months in children with seizures in the first 24 hours of stroke onset. Prolonged electroencephalogram monitoring was useful in detecting non-convulsive status epilepticus, but not in predicting the risk of epilepsy at 6 months.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA. ranising@med.umich.edu
authors.forename: Rani K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Nassim
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zecavati
authors.forename: Jarnail
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Himanshu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kaulas
authors.forename: Karin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Nathan P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Gaillard
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carpenter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012640:Seizures / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013226:Status Epilepticus / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013997:Time Factors