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Let’s talk about seizures.
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So what is a seizure?
A seizure is the clinical manifestation of abnormal excessive or synchronous discharges of neurons in the brain.
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It is paroxysmal,
Intermittent activity that is usually self-limited
and resolves after several seconds to a few minutes.
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The diagnosis of seizure is made by electroencephalogram,
also known as an EEG test.
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This shows seizures by sustained, abnormal electrical activity.
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Focal seizures start in one region of the brain,
and may or may not spread to neighboring brain regions.
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Generalized tonic-clonic seizures may evolve from a focal seizure or start as generalized.
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So once again, an abnormal hypersynchronous
electrical discharge of
neurons in the brain.
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It’s easy to read,
but please understand
the significance of it.
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So what’s an epilepsy?
The tendency to experience
recurrent, unprovoked seizures.
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The operative word,
unprovoked seizures.
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Keep things simple.
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A seizure is a hypersynchronous type of
electrical activity over a period of time,
maybe minutes,
whereas epilepsy would be unprovoked
type of seizure by the definition.
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Once you get the definitions down,
obviously, we’re going to
get into further details.
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Generalized seizures originate at some point within,
and rapidly engage “bilateral” neuronal networks.
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These bilateral networks can include cortical and
subcortical structures, but in no way mean it includes
the whole brain. The keyword here is “bilateral” in origin.
Because the seizures originate from a bilateral
network, the symptoms can be different
from one seizure to another.
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and you can have primary
generalization.
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You can have secondary but at
this point, current day practice,
we don’t really talk
about this so much, huh?
But our focus will be on primary
generalization with secondary.
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But what we’ll do is,
we’ll get into focal,
meaning to say, you have
focal portions of the brain,
most commonly, the
medial temporal lobe.
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Then at some point, a focal then can
go on to secondary generalization.
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Focal seizures originate within a network limited to
one hemisphere. Keyword here is “one hemisphere”.
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Secondary generalization means that at a later stage
in the seizure, there is involvement of both hemispheres.
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“Bilateral”.