[Epilepsy in the elderly people]. / Padaczka u osób w podeszlym wieku.

Recently an increasing number of cases of epilepsy revealed after 60 years of age have been noted. Epilepsy in the elderly may cause some diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties, it constitutes social problems as well. The authors present current epidemiological data, discuss pathogenesis of seizures, clinical course and prognosis, rules of differential diagnosis and treatment, highlighting specific features of the disease in this age group.

Epilepsy in middle-aged and elderly people: a three-year observation.

An analysis of the medical documentation and investigation of 130 cases of epilepsy diagnosed in a group of people over 50 years of age (average: 65.4 years) revealed that the most common type of seizure in the group studied was partial (66.2%), followed by seizures with secondary generalization (33.8%). Epilepsy was caused by cerebrovascular disease (50.8%) considerably more often in patients over 74 years of age, craniocerebral trauma in patients addicted to alcohol (13.1%), especially those under 65 years of age, primary or metastatic neoplastic disease (10.7%), and others. The authors wish to draw attention to the leukoaraiosis factor, which might be the proepileptogenic cause of epilepsy recognized in the group of patients over 74 years of age (56.5%) and is much more frequent in this group than in the group of patients under 65 years of age (1.6%). Moreover, some drugs, such as L-dopa and Baclofen, might have been related to the epileptic seizures. In 29 patients (22.3%) the definite cause of late-onset epilepsy was unknown. The authors suggest in such cases, both follow-up tomographic examination and careful clinical examinations. In the study group of patients with initially unknown seizure etiology, some diseases, such as cerebral tumor or colon and pancreatic neoplasm, were diagnosed during follow-up examination. These processes were revealed several months after the first epileptic seizure.

[Tau-pathies: neurodegenerative diseases with pathology involving tau protein]. / Taupatie--choroby zwyrodnieniowe osrodkowego ukladu nerwowego zwiazane z patologia bialka tau.

Microtubule-associated protein tau (MAP-tau) plays an important role in stabilizing neuronal structure, in axonal transport, regulating cellular division, and apoptotic processes. In recent years the structure and functions of MAP-tau, as well as its physiological changes and pathology, have been extensively studied. Degenerative diseases of the central nervous system having MAP-tau involved in their pathogenesis are called tau-pathies. This group includes Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, and corticobasal degeneration. The authors present the clinical pictures of these diseases (with the dominant features of dementia), and current possibilities in their diagnosis and treatment. MAP-tau as a marker for neurodegenerative process is already used in the diagnosis of tau-pathies. Further studies on its pathology may also give rise to some new therapeutic strategies.