Houston Pediatric Epilepsy Specialist Achieves Board Certification

Houston, Katy, Sugar Land, Cypress, San Antonio, Seguin & South Texas served by independent pediatric epileptologist with fast-track access. Dr. Rotenberg is one of a select few physicians nationwide double boarded in epilepsy and sleep medicine.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) - Jan. 10, 2014 - HOUSTON -- Texas Pediatric Specialists  & Texas Medical & Sleep Specialists proudly announce that Dr Joshua Rotenberg has achieved subspecialty board certification in Epilepsy in the first-year of the specialty’s existence. He is one of very few child neurologists in the world to achieve double certification in sleep and epilepsy.

Epileptology is a specialty of pediatric neurology focusing on infants, children and adolescents with all types of convulsions, epileptic seizures and seizure disorders.

“Epilepsy is a common illness that extends beyond the seizures,” said Rotenberg “As a specialist with a general pediatrics background, I monitor the broader experience - sleep, nutrition, development, pubertal issues, academics...Access, education and patient-oriented care are the keys to best outcomes.”

According to the American Epilepsy Foundation, 10 percent of Americans have a seizure in their lifetime, including all types of convulsions and febrile seizures. By age twenty, 1 percent of children, teens and young adults suffer from epilepsy.

The American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology (ABPN) first offered subspecialty certification in Epilepsy this year to identify physicians properly trained and experienced in treating epilepsy. In the final step of board certification, Dr. Rotenberg is among the few neurologists nation-wide who passed an examination evaluating proficiency in electroencephalography or EEG, pathophysiology, genetics, diagnosis and treatment of seizure disorders.

About Dr. Joshua Rotenberg

Dr. Rotenberg is a board-certified pediatrician and neurologist. He has been a member of the American Epilepsy Society for 10 years.  His practice offers evaluation and electroencephalography (EEG) in a warm, and personal office setting with advanced treatments for epilepsy including low-carbohydrate diet and vagal nerve stimulation.

Texas Pediatric Specialists focusses on the pediatric specialty mission of Texas Medical & Sleep Specialists, a multi-subspecialty group serving San Antonio and Houston. Before private practice, Dr. Rotenberg served in the US Air Force as the chief of pediatric neurology and pediatric sleep medicine at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center.

Rotenberg  added “Our practice's staff all share a functional - restorative approach to care and a sensitivity to easing the complex burden on patients and families. For patients with both epilepsy and spasticity, for instance, medication management can be followed by one person,” he said“ I can optimize care, minimize the risk of interactions, reduce trips to specialists and increase quality of life.”

Dr. Rotenberg's offices are in Houston and Sugar Land and he serves Academy Diagnostics Sleep & EEG Center in Houston. Dr. Rotenberg has outreach clinics in San Antonio & Seguin focussing on the dual diagnosis of cerebral palsy and epilepsy. He has clinical privileges at local hospitals including Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital.

  For more information go to myspecialist.clinc follow his blog or call 713-464-4107.

Contact
Dr. Rotenberg
7134644107

press release here

Do over-the-counter cold medications affect seizures?

This is a common question and here is some content and a link to epilepsy.com. JR

Do over-the-counter (OTC) drugs affect seizures?

Potential concern for increasing seizures -  diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in medications like Benadryl, which is used for colds, allergies, and to promote sleep. If you have epilepsy, you should talk to your doctor before you use it.

You should also talk to your doctor before you start using any herbal medicines. Just because they come from nature does not necessarily mean they are safe for you to use.

Other common medicines (even aspirin in some cases) can increase the unwanted side effects of your seizure medicines or increase seizures by changing the level of medication in your blood.

 Check the information elsewhere on this site concerning individual seizure medicines.

What OTC medications are considered safe for use by people with epilepsy?

• Medications for runny and stuffed noses containing pseudoephedrine or phenylephrine appear to be relatively safe, but there are reports of seizures caused by these drugs too.
• For aches and pains, acetaminophen (such as Tylenol, Panadol, Excedrin Aspirin Free) is probably the safest medication.
• Aspirin also appears safe, but it should not be given to children.

http://www.epilepsy.com/epilepsy/provoke_otc?print=true#

Protein Linked to Cognitive Deficits in Angelman Syndrome Discovered

Aug. 1, 2013 — A team of neuroscientists has identified a protein in laboratory mice linked to impairments similar to those afflicted with Angelman syndrome (AS) -- a condition associated with symptoms that include autism, intellectual disability, and motor abnormalities.

The findings appear in the journal Cell Reports.

"By isolating a protein that contributes to cognitive deficits in Angelman syndrome, these findings mark a step forward in not only addressing AS, but perhaps other developmental disorders as well," said Eric Klann, a professor in New York University's Center for Neural Science and one of the study's co-authors.

The study's researchers also included: Shelly Buffington and Matthew Rasband of the Baylor College of Medicine; Jerry Lingrel of the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology at the University of Cincinnati; and Hanoch Kaphzan, Akila Ramaraj, and Emanuela Santini of NYU's Center for Neural Science.

Previous research has shown that AS model mice display brain dysfunctions that match neurological abnormalities observed in humans, including cognitive deficits such as long-term memory. A previous study by Klann and his colleagues pointed to a potential cause for the condition -- overexpression of a subunit of a protein termed Na/K-ATPase in AS model mice.

In the Cell Reports study, the authors hypothesized that if they could decrease expression of this subunit, they could improve cognitive function of AS model mice.

To do this, they ran different populations of mice through cognitive and memory tests -- including a water maze to examine spatial memory and a fear conditioning paradigm to examine associative memory. They examined behaviors of the following types of mice: normal mice, AS model mice, mice that had reduced levels of the Na/K-ATPase, and AS model mice in which expression of the subunit of Na/K-ATPase was reduced.

In the water maze test, the mice needed to elevate themselves onto a platform in a specific location to get out of the water. The AS mice took longer to learn this task, but AS mice with reduced levels of the Na/K-ATPase subunit learned the task as fast as normal mice. In the second test, the researchers removed the maze's platform and measured how long the mice searched for the platform in this part of the maze in order to measure their memory of the platform location. The normal mice and the AS model mice with diminished expression of the Na/K-ATPase subunit searched the correct area of the maze in the same amount of time. However, other AS model mice had no memory of the platform location....

Science Daily summary Here

Full article here

Febrile seizures and behavioural and cognitive outcomes in preschool children: the Generation R Study

Are febrile seizures really totally benign? JR


Febrile seizures and behavioural and cognitive

 outcomes in preschool children: 

the Generation R Study

Aim 

 General developmental outcome is known to be good in school-aged children who experienced febrile seizures. We examined cognitive and behavioural outcomes in preschool children with febrile seizures, including language and executive functioning outcomes.

Method  This work was performed in the Generation R Study, a population-based cohort study in Rotterdam from early fetal life onwards. Information about the occurrence of febrile seizures was collected by questionnaires at the ages of 1, 2, and 3 years. At the age of 3 years, behaviour and emotion were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist. Information on expressive language development was obtained by the Language Development Survey at the age of 2 years 6 months. To assess executive functioning, parents completed the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Preschool Version when their children were 4 years old. Final analyses were based on 3157 children.

Results  No associations were found between febrile seizures and the risk of behavioural problems or executive functioning. In contrast to single febrile seizures, recurrent febrile seizures were significantly associated with an increased risk of delayed vocabulary development (odds ratio 3.22, [95% confidence interval 1.30–7.94]).

Interpretation  Febrile seizures are not associated with problem behaviour or executive functioning in preschool children, but the results suggest that children with recurrent febrile seizures might be at risk for delayed language development.

 link here