Patient navigation in epilepsy care.

The concept of patient navigation was first introduced in 1989 by the American Cancer Society and was first implemented in 1990 by Dr. Harold Freeman in Harlem, NY. The role of a patient navigator (PN) is to coordinate care between the care team, the patient, and their family while also providing social support. In the last 30 years, patient navigation in oncological care has expanded internationally and has been shown to significantly improve patient care experience, especially in the United States cancer care system. Like oncology care, patients who require epilepsy care face socioeconomic and healthcare system barriers and are at significant risk of morbidity and mortality if their care needs are not met. Although shortcomings in epilepsy care are longstanding, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues as both patients and providers have reported significant delays in care secondary to the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, preliminary studies had shown the potential efficacy of patient navigation in improving epilepsy care. Considering the evidence that such programs are helpful for severely disadvantaged cancer patients and in enhancing epilepsy care, we believe that professional societies should support and encourage PN programs for coordinated and comprehensive care for patients with epilepsy.

Effect of seizure timing on long-term survival in patients with brain tumor.

OBJECTIVE: Seizures often occur in patients with primary brain tumor (BT). The aim of this study was to determine if there is an association between the time of occurrence of seizures during the course of BT and survival of these patients. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study at Henry Ford Hospital, an urban tertiary referral center, included all patients who were diagnosed with primary BTs at Henry Ford Health System between January 2006 and December 2014. Timing of seizure occurrence, if occurred at presentation or after the tumor diagnosis during follow-up period, in different grades of BTs, and survival of these patients were analyzed. RESULTS: Of the 901 identified patients, 662 (53% male; mean age: 56 years) were included in final analysis, and seizures occurred in 283 patients (43%). Patients with World Health Organization (WHO) grade III BT with seizures as a presenting symptom only had better survival (adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 0.27; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.11-0.67; P = 0.004). Seizures that occurred after tumor diagnosis only (adjusted HR: 2.11; 95% CI, 1.59-2.81; P < 0.001) in patients with WHO grade II tumors (adjusted HR: 3.41; 95% CI, 1.05-11.1; P = 0.041) and WHO grade IV tumors (adjusted HR: 2.14; 95% CI, 1.58-2.90; P < 0.001) had higher mortality. Seizures that occurred at presentation and after diagnosis also had higher mortality (adjusted HR: 1.34; 95% CI, 1.00-1.80; P = 0.049), in patients with meningioma (adjusted HR: 6.19; 95% CI, 1.30-29.4; P = 0.021) and grade III tumors (adjusted HR: 6.19; 95% CI, 2.56-15.0; P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Seizures occurred in almost half of the patients with BTs. The association between seizures in patients with BT and their survival depends on the time of occurrence of seizures, if occurring at presentation or after tumor diagnosis, and the type of tumor. Better survival was noted in patients with WHO grade III BTs who had seizures at presentation at the time of diagnosis, while higher mortality was noted in WHO grade II tumors who had seizure at presentation and after tumor diagnosis, and in grade IV tumors after tumor diagnosis.

Contribution of Quantitative Amygdalar MR FLAIR Signal Analysis for Lateralization of Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This study evaluates the contribution of an automated amygdalar fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) signal analysis for the lateralization of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE). METHODS: Sixty-nine patients (27 M, 42 F) who had undergone surgery and achieved an Engel class Ia postoperative outcome were identified as a pure cohort of mTLE cases. Forty-six nonepileptic subjects comprised the control group. The amygdala was segmented in T1-weighted images using an atlas-based segmentation. The right/left ratios of amygdalar FLAIR mean and standard deviation were calculated for each subject. A linear classifier (ie, discriminator line) was designed for lateralization using the FLAIR features and a boundary domain, within which lateralization was assumed to be less definitive, was established using the same features from control subjects. Hippocampal FLAIR and volume analysis was performed for comparison. RESULTS: With the boundary domain in place, lateralization accuracy was found to be 70% with hippocampal FLAIR and 67% with hippocampal volume. Taking amygdalar analysis into account, 22% of cases that were found to have uncertain lateralization by hippocampal FLAIR analysis were confidently lateralized by amygdalar FLAIR. No misclassified case was found outside the amygdalar FLAIR boundary domain. CONCLUSIONS: Amygdalar FLAIR analysis provides an additional metric by which to establish mTLE in those cases where hippocampal FLAIR and volume analysis have failed to provide lateralizing information.

Intracranial electrographic analysis of preictal spiking and ictal onset in uni- and bitemporal epilepsy.

AIM: Ictal onset patterns in bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy have not been comprehensively studied. A retrospective review of intracranial electrographic data was undertaken to establish whether it is possible to distinguish between unilateral and bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy based on ictal onset patterns, including periodic preictal spiking. METHODS: A total of 470 ictal onset patterns were analyzed by bitemporal extraoperative electrocorticography in 13 patients with medically intractable mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Ictal onset patterns were categorized, by frequency, as type A (<12 Hz), type B (12-40 Hz) and type C (>40 Hz). Preictal rhythmic spiking, of at least five seconds duration, and time to contralateral propagation were also measured with each ictal event. We determined if the proportion of "ictal onset pattern frequencies" or "incidence of preictal spiking" differed between unilateral and bilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. RESULTS: Seven patients with unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy received surgery and achieved Engel class I outcomes, while the remaining six did not undergo resective surgery, due to the bilateral ictal onsets in extraoperative electrocorticography. The proportion of patients experiencing any preictal spikes was higher in unitemporal than in bitemporal cases (100% vs 50%;p=0.069). Ofthe470 ictal onset patterns analyzed (174 unitemporal and 296 bitemporal), a significant greater percentage of preictal spikes was found in unilateral cases (78% unitemporal vs 14% bitemporal; p=0.002). Low-frequency patterns were more evident in bitemporal cases (45%) than in unitemporal (10%), although the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.129). No differences were detected between the unitemporal and bitemporal groups regarding age at onset or at presentation. CONCLUSION: A greater proportion of pre ictal spiking, based on extraoperative electrocorticography, was present in unilateral, compared to bilateral, mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Further studies are warranted to determine the causal significance of preictal spiking in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.

Long-term seizure and psychosocial outcomes after resective surgery for intractable epilepsy.

Resective surgery is considered an effective treatment for refractory localization-related epilepsy. Most studies have reported seizure and psychosocial outcomes of 2-5 years postsurgery and a few up to 10 years. Our study aimed to assess long-term (up to 15 years) postsurgical seizure and psychosocial outcomes at our epilepsy center. The Henry Ford Health System Corporate Data Store was accessed to identify patients who had undergone surgical resection for localization-related epilepsy from 1993 to 2011. Demographics including age at epilepsy onset and surgery, seizure frequency before surgery, and pathology were gathered from electronic medical records. Phone surveys were conducted from May 2012 to January 2013 to determine patients' current seizure frequency and psychosocial metrics including driving and employment status and use of antidepressants. Surgical outcomes were based on Engel's classification (classes I and II=favorable outcomes). McNemar's tests, chi-square tests, two sample t-tests, and Wilcoxon two sample tests were used to analyze the relationships of psychosocial and surgical outcomes with demographic and surgical characteristics. A total of 470 patients had resective epilepsy surgery, and of those, 50 (11%) had died since surgery. Of the remaining, 253 (60%) were contacted with mean follow-up of 10.6±5.0years (27% of patients had follow-up of 15 years or longer). Of the patients surveyed, 32% were seizure-free and 75% had a favorable outcome (classes I and II). Favorable outcomes had significant associations with temporal resection (78% temporal vs 58% extratemporal, p=0.01) and when surgery was performed after scalp EEG only (85% vs 65%, p<0.001). Most importantly, favorable and seizure-free outcome rates remained stable after surgery over long-term follow-up [i.e., <5 years (77%, 41%), 5-10 years (67%, 29%), 10-15 years (78%, 38%), and >15 years (78%, 26%)]. Compared to before surgery, patients at the time of the survey were more likely to be driving (51% vs 35%, p<0.001) and using antidepressants (30% vs 22%, p=0.013) but less likely to be working full-time (23% vs 42%, p<0.001). A large majority of patients (92%) considered epilepsy surgery worthwhile regardless of the resection site, and this was associated with favorable outcomes (favorable=98% vs unfavorable=74%, p<0.001). The findings suggest that resective epilepsy surgery yields favorable long-term postoperative seizure and psychosocial outcomes.