Predictors of adverse effects to antiseizure drugs in adult patients with epilepsy from Colombia: A case-control study.

INTRODUCTION: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to antiseizure therapy can worsen the quality of life, reduce adherence, and potentially lead to treatment discontinuation and uncontrolled seizures. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to develop a prognostic model for ADRs to antiseizure therapy in adult patients with epilepsy from Colombia. METHODS: This case-control study included adult patients with epilepsy, who were separated into two groups: one group with ADRs to antiseizure therapy (cases), as determined by a complete evaluation conducted by an epileptologist, and another group without ADRs (controls). Variables were analyzed to identify statistical differences between the two groups and were then selected to construct a prognostic model using logistic regression. The Bonferroni method was applied for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: Three hundred fifty-four patients with epilepsy were studied. One hundred and fifty (42%) patients had ADRs and 204 (57%) patients did not have ADs. A total of 362 ADRs were reported, with a third of them being general symptoms and most frequently occurring with older-generation antiseizure drugs (58%). Female sex, drug-resistant epilepsy, LEV, and CZP were risk factors, whereras the presence of tumoral etiology, absence of seizure triggers, and VPA were identified as protective factors. A prognostic model was constructed using previously reported risk factors for ADRs to antiseizure therapy and other variables available in this population study. In the multivariable analysis, the number of previously used antiseizure drugs (1, 2, or ≥3), TPM, CZP, LEV, PHT, and female sex were predictors of ADRs. The corrected p-values were estimated by the Bonferroni method; however, not all the variables achieved statistical significance with this adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: In adult patients with epilepsy from Colombia, we found that the number of previously used antiseizure drugs, TPM, CZP, LEV, PHT, and female sex were predictive factors for ADRs to antiseizure therapy.

Estimulación cerebral profunda del globo pálido interno en el síndrome de distonía mioclónica: serie de 3 casos y revisión de la literatura / Deep brain stimulation of the internal globus pallidus in myoclonus-dystonia syndrome: a case series and review of the literature

RESUMEN INTRODUCCIÓN: La distonía mioclónica es un trastorno del movimiento con poca prevalencia, pero muy discapacitante, en el cual es frecuente la refractariedad al tratamiento médico. Cómo opción terapéutica se ha planteado la estimulación cerebral profunda, buscando con ello mejorar la función motora, la discapacidad y la calidad de vida de estos pacientes. MATERIALES Y MÉTODOS: Se presentan 3 pacientes con diagnóstico clínico de distonía mioclónica sin confirmación genética, que fueron llevados a estimulación cerebral profunda bilateral del globo pálido interno. RESULTADOS: Se evidenció una mejoría significativa en la evaluación de la escala unificada de mioclonías (80-90 %) y en la escala de distonía de Burke-Fahn-Marsden (tanto en movilidad como en discapacidad). La mejoría clínica se evidenció en los tres pacientes, en periodos de seguimiento que estuvieron entre los 6 meses y los 5 años luego de la estimulación cerebral profunda. DISCUSIÓN Y CONCLUSIONES: Los hallazgos en esta serie de 3 pacientes colombianos son consistentes con lo reportado en la literatura. Sin embargo, aportan información sobre el desenlace de pacientes sin genotipificación sometidos a estimulación cerebral profunda, dado que la eficacia de la intervención en pacientes con distonía sin confirmación genética aún no ha sido determinada, y depende de otros factores como la edad, el tiempo de evolución y el tipo de distonía.

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Myoclonic dystonia is a movement disorder with low prevalence, but very disabling, where refractoriness to medical treatment is frequent. Deep brain stimulation has been proposed as a therapeutic option, seeking to improve motor function, disability and quality of life in these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We present 3 patients with a clinical diagnosis of Myoclonic-Dystonia without genetic confirmation, who underwent bilateral deep brain stimulation of the Globus Pallidus Internus. RESULTS: A significant improvement was evidenced in the evaluation of the unified myoclonus scale (80-90 %) and in the Burke-Fahn-Marsden dystonia scale (both in mobility and in disability). The clinical improvement was evidenced in the 3 patients, in follow-up periods that were between 6 months and 5 years after deep brain stimulation. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Findings in this Colombian case series are consistent with that reported in the literature. However, the current description provides information on the outcome of patients without genotyping undergoing deep brain stimulation, considering that the efficacy of the intervention in these types of patients without genetic confirmation has not been determined and depends on other factors.

Estimulación cerebral profunda en enfermedad de Parkinson / Deep brain stimulation in Parkinson disease

RESUMEN Introducción: la enfermedad de Parkinson es considerada la segunda causa de enfermedad neurodegenerativa, en la que se destacan signos y síntomas motores como temblor, bradicinesia, rigidez e inestabilidad postural, acompañados de síntomas no motores como alteraciones del sueño, autonómicas, cognitivas, gastrointestinales, entre otras. El tratamiento farmacológico de la enfermedad al inicio suele ser útil, pero cuando los síntomas persisten, el tratamiento falla o no se toleran sus reacciones adversas, es necesario considerar alternativas como la estimulación cerebral profunda. Metodología: revisión narrativa con énfasis en los aspectos clínicos de la terapia con estimulación cerebral profunda en los pacientes con enfermedad de Parkinson. Discusión: la estimulación cerebral profunda es una técnica quirúrgica en la que se implantan electrodos en regiones cerebrales específicas, generalmente el núcleo subtalámico, globo pálido interno o núcleo ventral intermedio del tálamo, y se conectan a un marcapasos subcutáneo desde donde se modula eléctricamente la actividad de estas áreas. Esta terapia ha mostrado ser costo-efectiva, aporta beneficios considerables en la mejoría de los síntomas de la enfermedad de Parkinson y cuenta con evidencia clínica en los pacientes que han sido seleccionados correctamente.

SUMMARY Introduction: Parkinson's disease is considered the second cause of neurodegenerative disease, in which motor signs and symptoms such as tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity and postural instability are highlighted, accompanied by non-motor symptoms such as sleep, autonomic, cognitive, gastrointestinal among others disturbances. The pharmacological treatment of the disease at the beginning is usually useful, but when the symptoms persist, the treatment fails or its adverse reactions are not tolerated, it is necessary to consider alternatives such as deep brain stimulation. Methodology: This is a narrative review with emphasis on the clinical aspects of deep brain stimulation therapy in patients with Parkinson's disease. Discussion: Deep brain stimulation is a surgical technique in which electrodes are implanted in specific brain regions, usually the subthalamic nucleus, globus pallidus interna or ventral intermediate nucleus of the thalamus, and are connected to a subcutaneous pacemaker from which the activity of these areas is modulated electrically. This therapy has been shown to be cost-effective, provides considerable benefits in improving the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and has clinical evidence in patients who have been correctly selected.

Towards high accuracy classification of MER signals for target localization in Parkinson's disease.

In recent years Microelectrode recording (MER) analysis has proved to be a powerful localization tool of basal ganglia for Parkinson disease's treatment, especially the Subthalamic Nucleus (STN). In this paper, a signal-dependent method is presented for identification of the STN and other brain zones in Parkinsonian patients. The proposed method, refereed as optimal wavelet feature extraction method (OWFE), is constructed by lifting schemes (LS), which are a flexible and fast implementation of the wavelet transform (WT). The operators in the LS are optimized by means of Genetic Algorithms and Lagrange multipliers considering information contained in MER signals. Then a basic Bayesian classifier (LDC) is used to identify STN and other types of basal ganglia nuclei. The proposed method introduced several advantages from similar works reported in literature. First, the method is signal-dependent and non a priori information is required to decompose the MER signal. Second, the classification accuracy is mostly depended on the feature selection stage because it is not enhanced by elaborated classifiers such as support vector machines or hidden Markov models. Finally, the generalization property of the OWFE has been validated with two databases and different types of classifiers such as k-NN classifier and quadratic Bayesian classifier (QDC). Results have shown that proposed method is able to identify the STN with average accuracy superior than 97%.