Study: Stroke During Childhood May Raise Risk for Epilepsy

A study claims that 13% of children who had a stroke at a young age developed epilepsy later in life.

Infants and children who survive a bleeding stroke may be at increased risk for seizures and epilepsy, a new study finds.

Each year in the United States, about six and a half newborns and children out of every 100,000 suffer strokes. About half of the strokes are bleeding strokes, typically caused by the rupturing of weakened or malformed blood vessels.

In this study, researchers looked at 73 infants and children, ranging from newborns to 18 years old, who suffered bleeding in their brain tissue, a type of stroke called intracerebral hemorrhage.

About 60 percent of the newborns and 43 percent of the older children had visible seizures at the time of the stroke or within one week after the stroke. Of the 32 patients who had continuous brain monitoring, 28 percent had seizures that would otherwise have gone undetected.

The researchers plan to explore whether these subtle seizures are a risk factor for more seizures, epilepsy or other problems over the long-term, according to the study.

The findings were scheduled for presentation Thursday at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting in Honolulu. The study also will be published simultaneously in the journal JAMA Neurology.

The investigators also found that 13 percent of the patients developed epilepsy within two years, and that those who had elevated pressure in the brain that required medical or surgical treatment were more likely to have seizures and epilepsy later.

"Information on the risk for later seizures and epilepsy provides practitioners with concrete numbers that can be presented to families," study lead author Dr. Lauren Beslow, an instructor of pediatrics and neurology at Yale University, said in an American Heart Association news release.

"While an estimate of 13 percent may seem low at two years, the rate of epilepsy might be greater at later points," she added.

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What causes epilepsy? In Africa: Parasites, Trauma, Birth Complications

Parasites, Trauma Causes of Epilepsy

What causes epilepsy? In Africa, the burden of epilepsy is substantial. Read more and listen to VOA report on this problem. JR

by Joe DeCapua

A new study said it’s possible to substantially reduce the number of epilepsy cases in Africa. The neurological disorder, which is characterized by seizures, is much more common in poor countries and rural areas.


The study is the largest ever done on epilepsy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 600,000 people were evaluated in five countries: Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana.

“Epilepsy is an abnormal discharge within the brain, such that the person who has it experiences abnormal convulsive movements as a result of this abnormal discharge. There’s a strong genetic component to it. In some cases a strong family history. There are genes which have been associated with it,” said Psychiatry Professor Charles Newton of the Welcome Trust and Oxford University, who led the research.

Epilepsy can cause not only physical suffering, but emotional pain as well.

“In many African communities the cause is attributed to ancestors, spiritual causes and even witchcraft. There’s a lot of stigma attached to epilepsy. The people who have epilepsy are less likely to go to school; are less likely to marry; are less likely to get jobs,” he said.

Newton and his team said the study is the “first to reveal the true extent of the problem and the impact of different risk factors.” And it’s not just genetics. One big risk factor is parasites. The study found that adults, who had been exposed to a parasitic disease, were up to three times more likely to develop epilepsy.

“The ones that we identified were onchocerciasis, which is a parasite associated with river blindness; Toxocara and taxoplasmosis – both of which are transmitted by cats; neurocysticercosis, which is transmitted by pigs. And we have some evidence to suggest that malaria may also be contributing to this,” he said.

The adults were actually exposed to parasitic diseases during childhood. However, it took many years for the parasites to damage the brain enough to trigger epilepsy.

As for children, the study cited different factors

“In the children under 18 years of age, we found that although the parasitic causes were there they weren’t as important as the abnormal pregnancies of their mothers – and particularly events that occurred around their birth. So it looks like that these children are suffering from birth trauma. So, for example, if the mother has a prolonged second-stage labor or if the child comes out and is not breathing and hasn’t got any oxygen going to the brain, these may be responsible or factors in the pathway for developing brain damage,” said Newton....

Article and report here