title: "Electro-clinical syndromes" with onset in paediatric age: the highlights of the clinical-EEG, genetic and therapeutic advances.
abstract: The genetic causes underlying epilepsy remain largely unknown, and the impact of available genetic data on the nosology of epilepsy is still limited. Thus, at present, classification of epileptic disorders should be mainly based on electroclinical features. Electro-clinical syndrome is a term used to identify a group of clinical entities showing a cluster of electro-clinical characteristics, with signs and symptoms that together define a distinctive, recognizable, clinical disorder. These often become the focus of treatment trials as well as of genetic, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging investigations. They are distinctive disorders identifiable on the basis of a typical age onset, specific EEG characteristics, seizure types, and often other features which, when taken together, permit a specific diagnosis which, in turn, often has implications for treatment, management, and prognosis. Each electro-clinical syndrome can be classified according to age at onset, cognitive and developmental antecedents and consequences, motor and sensory examinations, EEG features, provoking or triggering factors, and patterns of seizure occurrence with respect to sleep. Therefore, according to the age at onset, here we review the more frequently observed paediatric electro-clinical syndrome from their clinical-EEG, genetic and therapeutic point of views.
authors.affiliation: NESMOS Department, Chair of Pediatrics, Child Neurology, Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University, Via di Grottarossa, 1035-1039, Rome,00189, Italy. pasquale.parisi@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Parisi
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verrotti
authors.forename: Maria Chiara
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Paolino
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Castaldo
authors.forename: Filomena
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ianniello
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferretti
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chiarelli
authors.forename: Maria Pia
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Villa
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D013577:Syndrome
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants