The body of a man with history of seizures was found!

Rescue workers have found the body of a Frankfort man who disappeared while fishing Wednesday afternoon.

Levi Tudor's body was found on Benson Creek just after 8 p.m. Thursday night, just feet from where witnesses recall seeing Tudor fishing before he disappeared.

Rescue crews said Tudor's body was located in about 15 feet of water, and still had his fishing pole in hand, and sunglasses on top of his head. Investigators say Tudor had a history of seizures and believe that could have caused him to go into the water, but the coroner says it's too early to determine a cause of death.

A friend found Tudor's boat and said it wasn't tied off, and that Tudor had left his cigarettes, car keys and other items in the boat.

At least five different agencies joined in the search for Tudor.

Brain pacemaker to treat seizures!?

A unique nerve-stimulation treatment for epilepsy developed at UCLA offers a potential new alternative for tens of thousands of individuals unable to control their seizures with medication and ineligible for surgery.

Developed by neuroscientists at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Valencia, Calif.-based Advanced Bionics Corp., trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) uses a “brain pacemaker” to stimulate a nerve involved in inhibiting seizures.

The trigeminal nerve extends into the brain from the face and forehead, and is known to play a role in seizure inhibition. The stimulator and electrodes used to transmit an electrical current to the nerve can be worn externally or implanted.

A study published in the July edition of the peer-reviewed journal Epilepsia reports that four of seven subjects who used an external stimulator for at least three months in a pilot human clinical trial enjoyed a 50 percent or better reduction in seizure frequency.

“Most people with chronic epilepsy who have continuing seizures are drug-resistant,” said Dr. Christopher DeGiorgio, vice chair and professor in residence of neurology at UCLA, and co-developer of TNS and lead author of the study. “In addition, anti-seizure drugs can have significant side effects on behavior, thinking and alertness. Women taking anti-seizure drugs and their unborn children are at special risk because of the effect of these drugs on fetal growth and development.
“For all of these reasons, we need to find non-drug alternative treatments,” DeGiorgio said. “The results of our pilot study support further investigation into the safety and efficacy of TNS for epilepsy.”

Forty percent of the 2.5 million people in the United States with epilepsy have poorly controlled seizures. Recurrent seizures lead to social isolation, unemployment, inability to drive and injuries from falls and burns, as well as drowning.

Approved treatment options include a variety of medications, neurosurgery that involves removing a small portion of the brain responsible for the seizures, and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).

Despite the introduction of multiple new antiepileptic drugs since the 1990s, as many as one million individuals with epilepsy across the country fail to benefit from drug treatment. While surgery can be effective, many patients are either not ideal candidates or lack access to one of the few specialized epilepsy centers, such as UCLA, where surgery is offered.

VNS treatment has helped thousands who could not control their seizures with medication and were ineligible for surgery. TNS, however, holds several potential advantages over VNS, DeGiorgio said.

Unlike VNS, the TNS stimulator can be tested externally to gauge results before implanting the device. Patients treated in the clinical trial wore the stimulator on their belt. Wires from the stimulator were passed under clothing and connected to electrodes attached to the face by adhesive. The electrodes could be covered by a cap or hat.

In addition, while VNS stimulates only one side of the brain, TNS stimulates both sides, a theoretical advantage that will require more testing to validate and quantify.

The cost of an external TNS stimulator is about $180. The monthly retail cost of batteries and electrodes is $150 to $170.

Originally tested in animal studies by researchers at Duke University, TNS was developed and used for the first time in humans at UCLA in the recently completed pilot study outlined in Epilepsia. The research is being conducted using a grant from Advanced Bionics.

Study co-investigators were Dr. Alan Shewmon, clinical professor of neurology at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and chief of neurology at Olive View Medical Center, and Dr. Todd Whitehurst of Advanced Bionics. Neither DeGiorgio nor Shewmon have a financial interest in Advanced Bionics.

DeGiorgio is currently enrolling patients in a follow-up study that will seek to extend the findings to 25 patients. A third study will examine the impact of implanting TNS with an electrode under the skin (just beneath the eyebrow) of patients who respond to the external stimulator.

The UCLA Department of Neurology encompasses more than a dozen research, clinical and teaching programs. These programs cover brain mapping and neuroimaging, movement disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, neurogenetics, nerve and muscle disorders, epilepsy, neuro-oncology, neurotology, neuropsychology, headaches and migraines, neurorehabilitation, and neurovascular disorders. The department ranks No. 2 among its peers nationwide in National Institutes of Health funding.

Driver dies in crash, possibly caused by seizures

A Crane man may have suffered a seizure before the Springfield auto crash in which he died Sunday night.

Jess J. Folk, 49, died in the 2700 block of South Luster Avenue, police said.

He was alone in a van that accelerated and veered to the left, striking a large tree in a yard at about 8:21 p.m. Family members said Folk had a history of seizures and may have had one before the crash, police said.

Toddler suffers from seizures due to presence of cocaine in bloodstream

Camden police say a four-year-old boy whose mother was arrested after allegedly stabbing her husband with scissors was removed from his home after hospital workers discovered cocaine in the child's bloodstream. Emergency workers were called to the home of 49-year-old Barbara Childs with a report of a child having seizures.

A police report said the emergency workers called police because the child's father had a stab wound. The report said the boy was hospitalized and tested positive for cocaine. Childs was arrested on a third-degree domestic battery charge for the stabbing and an investigation is under way by the state. The boy was placed in the custody of the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services.

Man trimming a palm tree suffered from seizures

A horrific rescue took place Friday afternoon when a man was removed from tree with power lines overhead.

It happened around 11:20 a.m. in central Bakersfield on 11th Street.

Bakersfield City Fire Department said they found a man, Greg Kleebowski, hanging from a palm tree, 30 feet above the ground. Firefighters struggled to get him down from a precarious position in less than ideal conditions.

They said he was connected to the tree by a tree-trimming hardness and experiencing seizures. Fire crews struggled for over an hour in hot temperatures and with a less-than ideal location.
As friends and family arrived, Pacific Gas and Electric came to shut down the power lines.
Finally, rescuers harnessed Kleebowski to a ladder truck and slowly lowered him to the ground.
Paramedics rushed him to the Kern Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition Friday afternoon.

The fire department believes the tree became energized from making contact with a high-voltage wire.

PG&E says California Code prevents anyone but a certified trimmer to work within 10 feet of a high-voltage power line. Moreover, PG&E provides inspection and tree-trimming services.

Anyone who would like more information can call 1-800-pge-5000.

The inspection and tree-trimming work is free.

Stroger suffers from seizures...once again!

John Stroger, who recently completed his 12-year reign as Cook County Board president, is back in the hospital after suffering seizures.

This represents at least his fourth hospitalization since he suffered a stroke in March on the eve of the Democratic primary election.

Stroger was re-admitted to the hospital Friday, though his family did not disclose until Monday evening that he had checked back in. Stroger's family has been releasing few details of his medical condition, saying they wanted to respect his privacy. But the family denied a television report that this hospitalization was the result of another stroke.

"He just went in for observation because of the seizures," said Bill Figel, a spokesman for Ald. Todd Stroger (8th), John Stroger's son.

'He's been up and down'

Ald. Stroger, who will ask Cook County Democratic committeemen today to slate him to replace his father on November's general election ballot, said Monday afternoon that he has not talked much with his father about the election.

"He's been up and down," Todd Stroger said of his father. "I'm trying to let him take some of the stress off."

Meanwhile, a South Side man filed a federal lawsuit Monday saying Democratic leaders withheld information about John Stroger's illness because they feared losing control of the County Board.

Sleep Apnea can be related to seizures!

Sleep-disordered breathing is a technical term for breathing difficulties during sleep. Accurate diagnosis is key because problems associated with the condition can mimic or cause a number of psychological and physical illnesses.

Obstructive sleep apnea, one such breathing disorder, can occur at any age. In adults, it is often detected by a spouse who notices periods when the partner's breathing stops during sleep. The airway collapses as it relaxes, depriving the body and brain of oxygen.

In children, it may be due to obstruction by enlarged tonsils and adenoids, and various deformations. It can be life-threatening in infants.Symptoms include sleep that is not restful, daytime sleepiness, headache and confusion. Untreated sleep apnea can lead to depression, memory loss, thinking problems, loss of brain tissue, lack of self-control, high blood pressure, stroke and sudden cardiac death.

In affected children, there may be problems with attention, memory, learning, hand-eye coordination, hyperactivity, aggression and violence. Misdiagnosis occurs because those symptoms can also be associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and many other conditions.

Your pediatrician or primary care physician may recommend a sleep evaluation if there is:
Disturbed sleep.

Nighttime gagging, loss of breath or childhood snoring.

Excessive daytime sleepiness.

Daytime drop attacks (seizures that cause sudden falls).

Other symptoms described above.A sleep study can be done with overnight monitoring in a sleep clinic. Sleep experts will be able to detect not only breathing disorders but also seizures, narcolepsy and a number of other possible diagnoses.

A common treatment for obstructed breathing during sleep is continuous positive airway pressure (nasal CPAP), when a machine forces mildly pressured air into the nostrils to keep the airway open during sleep.

Weight loss can be extremely important, too, since becoming overweight is a possible cause as well as a result of obstructive sleep apnea.

If you wish to learn more about Sleep Apnea, I invite you to visit the following site: http://sleep-apnea.findoutnow.org

Seizures, a bigger problem for dogs than humans

DR. UTCHEN: We think our dog had a seizure. He stumbled and lay down, and his whole body seemed to spasm for about 10 seconds. After that, he lay quietly for about five minutes and then got up but seemed disoriented.

Can dogs have epilepsy?

A: Yes, epilepsy occurs in dogs just like it does in people. For most dogs that are epileptic, the first seizure of their lives occur before the age of 3.

Seizures are manifest on a whole continuum of behaviors.

They can be brief, lasting only a few seconds, and mild, involving no more than a little twitching, sometimes limited to one part of the body.

Conversely, they can be prolonged and violent, involving a full-body convulsion for several minutes. Some dogs even have what are called clusters of seizures, where a group of several seizures occurs over a period of a few days, or within one day.

Is an epileptic seizure harmful by itself?

The answer depends on the severity and duration of the seizure.

A prolonged seizure of several minutes or more can result in a rise in body temperature up to a level that is dangerous to the brain.

Even without a high body temperature, seizures can cause the excess release of a neurotransmitter in the brain called Glutamate, which allows excess calcium to enter the neurons in the brain and can damage them.

However, brief seizures are unlikely to cause any measurable physical damage to the brain.

Although there are various medical conditions that can cause seizures, a physical examination and blood tests can help a veterinarian determine whether the cause is true epilepsy.

I describe epilepsy as a condition where the brain periodically begins mis-firing and results in a seizure from time to time.

Generally this begins with a single small group of neurons, sort of like a spark plug, and spreads to the rest of the brain.

Admittedly, while that is a vast oversimplification, that explanation emphasizes the point that with epilepsy, nothing else is wrong with the body, and during the interval of time between seizures there is nothing else abnormal with an epileptic dog.

Usually, a dog with epilepsy who does not take medications to help prevent seizures from occurring will have seizures at a somewhat regular interval maybe as infrequently as
once a year, or as frequently as weekly, although that is not common.

I do not usually recommend a client treat their dog to help prevent seizures if the frequency of seizures is only every four to six months, unless the seizures are extremely prolonged or occur in clusters.

The fact is that there is no agreed-upon frequency of seizures above which a dog must be medicated.

The important thing to know is that epilepsy in dogs is more common than most people realize, and generally can be well managed with either of a few different medications.

Most commonly, Potassium Bromide is used. This is a liquid that dogs take once a day, usually by having it squirted on their food.

Other dogs respond better to Phenobarbital, which is given in tablet form twice a day.

Uncommonly, liver damage may occur, so if your dog is epileptic and takes Phenobarbital, blood tests should be done every six to 12 months to be sure everything is well.

Sometimes both drugs are used together, and less commonly used human medications, such as Keppra, Gabapentin, Klonopin Felbatol, and others are occasionally employed.

If your dog has a seizure, it is important to react properly.

Do not put your hands near a dog's mouth while he or she is seizing.

There is no truth to the myth that dogs can swallow their tongue during a seizure. Do your best to move your dog to an area on the floor away from furniture and other objects that he or she could be injured by.

Call your veterinarian and take your dog in at once. It is important the veterinarian examine your dog because there are various other reasons that a dog could have a seizure; poisoning by ingestion of snail bait, too much chocolate, or low blood sugar.

In most cases, blood tests are done to help determine the underlying cause for the seizure so that therapy, if indicated, can be instituted immediately.

Dog runs away, leaving behind owner with seizures

Christine Sheetz has had epileptic seizures since she was a toddler. For much of her life, she lived in fear, not knowing when the next one might strike. Then five years ago, her mother gave her a Yorkshire terrier named Faithful.Showing an uncanny ability to respond to seizures, the Yorkie changed Sheetz's life. Moments after she was stricken, Faithful barked and jumped on her, summoning others, often helping her avoid a fall in her Johnsburg home.

The dog's noisy response also alerted Sheetz's mother, Connie, when her daughter had a nighttime seizure.But on May 10, Faithful ran away after a run-in with an unleashed dog. In a last-ditch attempt to find its beloved dog, the McHenry County family is offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who leads them to Faithful."He couldn't have meant more to me," Christine Sheetz, 28, said Thursday. "I haven't had children and I don't think I will. He's like the child I'll never have and like my mom's second child."Connie Sheetz bought Faithful from a McHenry breeder for $750 to provide companion for her daughter as she recuperated from brain surgery for epilepsy.

Faithful wasn't trained to respond to seizures; it was just a happy accident.But experts say an increasing number of people with epilepsy, diabetes and cardiac conditions are seeking dogs to respond to a medical problem or even alert them before they are stricken."People with epilepsy are always looking for ways to lessen the unpredictability of their seizures because it's so unpredictable," said Garret Auriemma, a spokesman for the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago.Canine Assistants Inc., based in Georgia, has 700 names on a waiting list for its dogs, usually retrievers, which are trained for a number of tasks, including responding to seizures, said Tib Holland, director of development of the non-profit organization.

Canine Assistants places about 70 dogs in homes a year for free through sponsors who cover the $15,500 cost for medical care, food and training. Among other skills, the dogs can be trained to hit a button linked to 911, fetch medicine, open and close doors, and alert others to a problem.Far rarer, experts say, are dogs that can detect a seizure before it happens."Seizure alert" dogs are born with the ability to warn of impending episodes."It's a natural instinct that some dogs seem to be inclined to act on," said Darlene Sullivan, executive director of Canine Partners for Life, a Pennsylvania-organization that trains service dogs, including a small number that may show seizure-alert skills.

Sullivan and others believe that the dogs are picking up on signs, perhaps through their sense of smell, of the chemical and electrical changes occurring before a seizure.A dog's breed, size or age is not a factor in seizure-alert skills, experts said.Canine Partners for Life trains about 25 service dogs each year, primarily for people who use wheelchairs or have trouble walking. Of those 25 dogs, six might have the skill to alert others to a medical situation, Sullivan said.It costs Sullivan's organization about $20,000 to train service dogs, including those that can anticipate a seizure. But they are placed with individuals, many on fixed incomes, for $1,000 to $3,000.

Christine Sheetz, who developed epilepsy at age 2 after falls and head injuries, said Faithful would respond to her seizures even if she was in another room or upstairs in the family's two-story home."It was a wonderful blessing," she said. "He was by my side 24 hours a day. He always sat next to me in the house or wherever. It was like having a person with me, not just a dog."

Mother and daughter said they have been devastated by losing the dog."He absolutely would save her life," said Connie Sheetz, 48.

Around 7:30 p.m. May 10, Connie and Christine Sheetz were taking their evening walk with Faithful in a nearby subdivision when they passed a home just as a woman walked out with two larger dogs.One immediately attacked Faithful, biting the Yorkie and flinging him in the air; Faithful got loose from his collar during the struggle and ran away, the women said.They chased Faithful but couldn't keep up.

With other family members helping, the women searched the area until midnight.They printed 900 fliers and 150 posters, spending $1,500. They offered a $500 reward, then $1,000, and three weeks ago, they increased it to $10,000.The Sheetzes have received calls but no successful leads, and one neighbor grimly noted that the area of new subdivisions amid bean fields and cornfields is rampant with coyotes and hawks.

Shortly after they lost the dog, the women got a new 4-month-old Yorkshire terrier.Reflecting their wish for Faithful's safe return, they named it Hope.So far, the pup hasn't shown seizure-response skills.The reward money will come from Connie Sheetz's savings from her last job as a part-time manager of a heating and air conditioning company."It won't help [finances]," she said, "but it would be the best money that I could ever spend if I could get this dog back."

Pacer for seizures

More than 2.7 million americans suffer from some form of epilepsy. But as Dr. Tracy Wimbush reports, there may soon be a new treatment for children with this seizure disorder.

Every day, more than 300-thousand parents worry -- Is this the day my child will have an epileptic seizure?

Many of those children can take medication to control the disorder. But for about one in three - no medicine can help. But now, there is new hope for young children.

For nearly five years, Colton Hinerman and his mom, Katie, didn't know what a good night's sleep was.

As soon as he would drift off, Colton would get seizures - nearly 20 of them every night.
"I'd be there all night and i'd have to give him Valium," recalls Katie.

Every drug that doctors tried either didn't work or gave colton bad side effects that made it tough to get through school. And his mother and doctor worried about long term damage from not keeping his seizures under control.

"Seizures over time, especially in the developing brain, are harmful. Both from a social perspective, but also from a cognitive or thinking perspective," states Dr. Juliann Paolicchi of Columbus's Children's Hospital.

But the physician/researcher found hope in a nerve stimulator that acts like a pacemaker.
It's implanted in the chest and connects to the vagus nerve in the neck. It controls signals to the brain that cause seizures.

Adults and teens have used them for years, but in an FDA approved study, Dr Paolicchi tested them in younger children.

In nearly half of those children, seizures were cut by 75 percent - and injuries related to seizures dropped dramatically.

If patients feel a seizure coming on, they can even treat themselves by swiping a special magnet to activate the device.

"They finally have something that controls the seizure at the time that they actually experience it," states Dr. Paolicchi.

For Colton, the seizures stopped once he got a vagus nerve stimulator. Now, having his magnet by his bedside means he and his mom can get a good night's sleep.

Right now, the vagus nerve stimulator is FDA approved for children 12 and up. The FDA is reviewing Dr. Paolicchi's research and may change that policy.

Can you deal with pet seizures?

Pets, like people, have a much greater chance of surviving a life-threatening emergency if the proper first aid is administered right away.

Being prepared for a pet emergency will increase your chances of responding calmly and quickly and could save your pet's life.

For example, what if you're away at work and your house catches on fire?

"It's a good idea to pick up several stickers from your veterinarian or local fire department to place on your windows in case of a fire, letting the firefighters know to rescue your dog or cat as well," says veterinarian Keven Gulikers, an internal medicine specialist in Mesa, Ariz.

Learning basic pet first aid is one more way to help ensure that your pet will be a part of your family for many years to come. So just how do you perform first aid on a pet?

Here are tips to help you get started:

• Traumatic injuries: Always approach an injured pet carefully, as animals in pain may reflexively bite or scratch. Keep your pet restrained and warm by wrapping a large towel around her. For dogs, use a muzzle if available or make a muzzle out of nylons, a large sock or a leash to prevent bites. Speak in a gentle voice to help calm her down. Move more severely injured animals carefully using a blanket or board as a makeshift stretcher.

• Bleeding: Have someone help restrain your pet and/or apply a muzzle. Apply direct, firm pressure to bleeding wounds. A bandage may not apply enough pressure to stop the bleeding, especially if a blood vessel was injured, but might help decrease the amount of blood lost.

• Poisoning: Do not induce vomiting unless your veterinarian recommends it. If you know what toxin your pet ingested, bring the toxin along with the container with you to the pet hospital to help the veterinarian determine treatment. If your animal ingested a human medication, always bring in the pill vial that contains the name of the medication and the strength. Keep the number of your local veterinary emergency clinic and human poison center near your phone. While many human poison centers are happy to answer questions about pets, one of the best resources is the ASPCA Animal Poison Control (www.aspca.org/apcc).

• Seizures: Although not painful to the pet, seizures are scary to observe. If you see your pet lose consciousness and begin to convulse, the only reason to touch the pet is if there is danger of falling or the animal is banging its head against a wall. Pets cannot swallow their tongue, so don't put your hand in a clamping mouth! Once the pet is in a safe place, begin to time the seizure. Most last one to three minutes. Before taking the pet to the vet, do a search to determine if the pet might have eaten anything unusual. If so, bring the material and the pet the next business day. If the seizures continue for more than 10 minutes (cumulatively), make a beeline to the emergency hospital.

Unexplained seizures

Heather Painter has an alarm system.

"My heart races and feels like it is going to jump out of my chest," Heather said. "Then I either get really hot or really cold - it just depends.

"Then the light goes dim and my hands start shaking. I get really weak and then I know I'm done."
Painter loses consciousness. And when she is unconscious, the seizures start.

"They started in February of last year," Heather said. "It was on the same day I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I was really nervous about having my teeth pulled.

"I got home and had a seizure. When I woke up, I was in an ambulance."

Fifty seizures - and countless tests later - Heather doesn't want anyone to think her life has changed. A four-year member of the Galesburg High School bowling team before graduating in the spring of 2005, the 19-year-old joined Western Illinois University's club bowling team.

Heather's first season went well, despite the unexplained seizures. She started with the varsity club and averaged 170 per game. WIU finished tied for fourth at nationals and Heather finished the season ranked No. 24 in the nation among rookie bowlers.

"I thought the season went well," Heather said. "I proved a lot to myself. I only had one bad tournament and I felt like I got better as the year went on."

While Heather's game got better, she spent some time looking for the cause of the seizures.
"I've been to Cottage and St. Mary's and to Peoria and Iowa City and the Mayo Clinic," Heather said. "My mom has talked to so many people that I don't know where else we can go."

Pulmonary, cardiovascular and neurological tests revealed no abnormalities or possible causes. The seizures did have a wide-range of effects, though.

"When it first started, I didn't want to be around people," Heather said. "I didn't want to scare anyone and I didn't want my friends to see me have a seizure.

"I kind of got past that. When I'm around new people, I don't want them to see me have a seizure. But I've learned to live with it."

Cindy Painter lost her full-time job as a result of the time off caused by her daughter's medical issues.

"I was also working at Hy-Vee and they have been very good to both Heather and I," Cindy said. "This has just been a very frustrating experience. I think Heather has undergone every test possible. She has been poked, prodded and examined. I guess medicine doesn't always have an answer, but it has been a tough situation."

Cindy said she never knows when the seizures will strike.

"I try not to let Heather know it - but I do live on the edge," Cindy said. "My cell phone is always with me. It's always in the back of my mind."

Detecting seizures before they start

Researchers at MIT and Harvard are preparing to carry out trials of a new device for treating epilepsy. If successful, it would be the first such device to automatically detect and treat seizures, says John Guttag, at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, who developed it with colleague Ali Shoeb and Steven Schachter, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School, in Boston.
Currently, more than two million people in the United States alone have epilepsy. And globally it affects one in every 100 people. While about half of them are able to treat the condition with drug therapies, many others fight a constant battle to find the right drugs to target their condition. And, for many sufferers, such as those whose epilepsy is caused by trauma to the brain, drugs are not an option.

Guttag is working on a technological alternative that involves implanting a pacemaker-like device in the patient's chest. Connected to the device is an electrode that wraps around the vagus nerve, a large nerve that runs down from the brainstem through the neck and into the abdomen. This vagal nerve stimulator (VNS) has two modes, says Guttag. One stimulates the nerve electrically at regular intervals. "There is some evidence that this periodic stimulation has a long-term prophylactic effect," he says. But this is hit or miss.

The other "on-demand" mode, which uses more powerful electrical stimulations, can be activated by the patient when a seizure occurs to try to stop it. Although precisely why this works is unknown, there's plenty of evidence that VNS can actually stop seizures, says Guttag.

But there's a catch. To activate the on-demand mode, patients must swipe a magnetic wrist strap across their chest whenever they feel a seizure coming on, explains Harvard's Schachter. Hence, a patient must be able to sense the early signs of a seizure in enough time to do anything about it.
"In my experiences more than half cannot perceive the onset of the seizures," says Schachter. And of those who do manage to use the magnet, only one in four cases results in a reduction of the seizure's severity, he says. This may be due to a latency effect: any delay could be less effective at reducing the symptoms.

"Part of the problem with VNS is that it's not a closed loop system," says Steven Rothman, a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, meaning there's no feedback to the device. He points out that it would be more effective if the system itself, not the patient, could detect the seizure.

A new version of Guttag's VNS device, which will be tested on between 10 and 20 patients over the next few months, attempts to solve this problem by providing the device with feedback from the patient. The patient's brain activity will be monitored using an electroencephalogram (EEG) that is continuously analyzed by a detection program. When a seizure is detected, the device will activate an electromagnet hung over the patient's chest, which, in turn, will activate the implanted VNS device.

Initially, the EEG electrodes will be worn as part of a device that looks like a swimming cap, says Guttag. It wouldn't have to be worn all the time, but could be used, for example, when driving. And the long-term goal is a much less conspicuous object ("We could easily put it under a hair piece"). Eventually, the electrodes could be placed permanently under the scalp, he says. Similarly, the electromagnetic triggering mechanism would be integrated within the implanted VNS device. The mechanics of this proof-of-principle set-up are still crude, says Schachter, but the all-important algorithms are reliable.

In fact, the goal is a detection program good enough to sense a seizure much earlier than a patient could. If so, such a device would not only dramatically reduce the severity of seizures, but also might also prevent them.

Another device for detecting seizures, the Response Neurostimulator, developed by NeuroPace in Mountain View, CA, is also under development and currently undergoing clinical trials. And it also involves trying to detect seizures at an early stage. However, instead of stimulating the vagus nerve, it electrically stimulates the brain directly via electrodes implanted on the surface of or inside the brain.

In theory, NeuroPace's device should have an easier job of detecting the seizure, says Brian Litt, a neurologist and bioengineer at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, because such detection electrodes can be placed directly on the brain. In contrast, scalp electrodes tend to pick up much noisier signals, he says.

As far as Guttag is concerned, though, VNS has a clear advantage: "It's less invasive, because we're not actually putting anything in the brain." Indeed, a VNS device that could operate automatically would be welcomed by patients, says Litt. If successful, it could do for epilepsy what pacemakers and implantable defibrillators have done for heart conditions, he says. "At the moment, it's the equivalent of saying ‘when you feel a potentially fatal heart rhythm coming along hit yourself in the chest'."

Toddler loses battle over seizures condition

Fifteen-month-old McKenna Olson of Lakeville died Wednesday from a rare genetic disorder called Alpers' disease after almost a five-month battle.

McKenna began having seizures, a symptom of the incurable brain disease, nearly two weeks ago and was admitted to Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota in St. Paul. She died there at about 2:45 p.m., according to the family's CaringBridge Web site.

Hundreds followed McKenna's struggle, donating money to help her family, writing letters of support and viewing her Web site more than 300,000 times.

"She was peaceful when she passed away and that was a blessing," said family friend Roxanne Frolik.

She was the second child Rand and Shannon Olson lost to the disorder. Their son, Drew, died in August, five days before his second birthday. Doctors discovered he had Alpers' just nine days before he died. McKenna later tested positive for the disease.

"I know they (McKenna's family) appreciate all the support," Frolik said. It means so much to McKenna's mother "to know how much her kids have touched other people's lives."

Alpers' disease is estimated to affect fewer than one in 200,000 children, according to Dr. Frank Ritter, a pediatric neurologist who specializes in epilepsy at St. Paul Children's. Ritter treated both Olson babies. The first symptoms usually begin with seizures early in life. In most cases, the child will die within three months after the onset of symptoms.

Like her brother, doctors would put McKenna in a drug-induced coma to prevent her from having nonstop seizures. She had her first seizure on Valentine's Day while at Disneyland. Her parents knew they would someday lose McKenna, like Drew.

"My sweet Muffin lost her battle with Alpers' today," wrote Shannon Olson, 35, on the CaringBridge Web site, which she updated regularly during McKenna's and Drew's illness. "I know her brother is waiting for her."

Fighting for her life!

A 10-year-old Jupiter girl with the mind of a 3-month-old suffers paralyzing seizures that literally take her breath away.

Jessi van Antwerp, born in South Africa, was 11 weeks old and about to undergo surgery for a hernia when she was left in a Cape Town operating room without oxygen for 15 minutes, her parents said.

"It was a comedy of errors," her father, Henry van Antwerp, 43, recalled.

On Monday, two years after accepting a confidential legal settlement from the Cape Town hospital that they said inserted an adult anesthesia tube into Jessi's stomach, rather than her lungs, the golf facilities builder and wife, Marchel, were preparing to celebrate their first Independence Day as American citizens.

The native South African couple also recently published, "Bloody but Unbowed," Marchel van Antwerp's fictional account of their experiences with Jessi, who physicians said wouldn't live past the age of 2.

It's a situation that can "either push you apart or pull you together," Marchel van Antwerp, 40, said. "We are one."

For 10 years, she and Henry have watched Jessi die a little with each day's seizures. And the little girl's needs — a cool climate and shade, for instance — often take precedence over the outdoor-oriented desires of her sisters, Danica, 15, and Codi, 5.

Jessi is unable to walk or talk, and she has been in the care of Vitas Hospice for one year now. She and her family moved to the United States about one month after her 1996 hospital incident, when a wealthy Miami businessman friend offered to cover the cost of her medical needs — including surgery to accommodate a feeding tube, Henry van Antwerp said.

For the past five years, the van Antwerps have spent some $250,000 of their own money for Jessi's care. Anti-seizure medications — she takes four different variations daily — cost as much as $1,000 each per month, Marchel van Antwerp said.

Still, the little girl shakes excessively, or experiences a twitching of the face during sometimes silent convulsions that paralyze her heart and lungs. Her legs refuse to uncurl, her bone growth is stunted and her muscles, because they go unused, have weakened.

"We're fighting an uphill battle, but we're just going to continue doing what we're doing," Marchel van Antwerp said.

"Letting her go is not an option," Henry van Antwerp added.

Funds from the legal settlement helped the van Antwerps get out of debt and move out of a Boca Raton rental and into a modest Jupiter home of their own.

There, Jessi goes for weeks sleeping days instead of nights, and the bedroom she shares with her parents is decorated with all the life assistance machines of an intensive care unit. Marchel van Antwerp has learned to perform CPR, and she does so regularly. She and her family live each day with the possibility Jessi might die. And yet they consider the little girl a blessing who has changed them for the better.

Henry van Antwerp refers to Jessi as a "miracle," and, because she cannot sin or lose her innocence, as "God's best work." Her siblings, Danica and Codi, Marchel van Antwerp said, have learned "a compassion that's something you cannot teach them.

"So many people go through life complaining about stuff," Marchel van Antwerp said. "We used to take things for granted and sweat the small stuff. If you've seen the very bottom, which we have, you have a way of appreciating things more.

WHERE TO PURCHASE 'BLOODY BUT UNBOWED'
Marchel van Antwerp's book, "Bloody but Unbowed," is available for purchase at www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com and www.walmart.com. For a few dollars more, signed copies can be purchased through the van Antwerps' Web site, www.bloodybutunbowed.com.

Dog helps with seizures

A Utah four-year old is celebrating Independence Day on a more personal level this year. He's free from serious medical complications, and KSL viewers played a role.

It's refreshing to follow up on these kinds of stories.

A year ago, a specially trained dog was a Holladay family's best hope for their toddler with epilepsy. KSL viewers helped them raise the money for the dog, and see how he's helping now.
Spencer Smith and Bronco play together and stay together everywhere, even when it's time for bed.

"I love him."

That bond is a powerful medicine.

Spencer used to have dozens of epileptic seizures a day. A strict diet helped. But in the year since Bronco came to their home, Spencer's been seizure-free.

Mike Smith/ Spencer's Father: "When we got the dog they said the main thing he'll do for him is lower his stress level. They say that's the main thing that stops little kids from having seizures."
Stress levels have gone down for the whole family. Mike and Noni Smith can actually go on a date. And for the first time, Spencer can sleep in his own bed.

"There's a comfort level that never was there, that we couldn't have had before."

Mike Smith: "He's trained to hit a button on the wall if there's a problem with Spencer that would alert us in our bedroom. Fortunately, we haven't had to use it and hopefully we never have to."
The dog would've been trained to smell oncoming seizures through chemical scent, but so far that training hasn't been necessary.

Doctors, even Bronco's trainers, can't say exactly why the seizures have stopped. But the Smith's are just thankful for friends and supporters who made it possible.

Noni Smith/ Spencer's Mother: "We have this fabulously trained dog that's been such a blessing to Spencer. He sleeps with him every night and gives us such great peace of mind."

"We're just so grateful we have Bronco and that he's giving him whatever he's giving him, because something's working."

The Smits told us tonight that they're especially grateful for the dog, because over the weekend their younger daughter suffered a seizure. So Bronco may be getting expanded duties.

Medication could be a positive treatment for seizures

UCB today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has issued a positive opinion to approve marketing authorisation of Keppra® (levetiracetam) as monotherapy in the treatment of partial onset seizures with or without secondary generalisation in patients from 16 years of age with newly diagnosed epilepsy.

According to Peter Verdru, M.D., Vice President, Clinical Research, Head of Neurology/Psychiatry Clinical Development, "This current filing highlights our commitment to patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy. UCB has undertaken a comprehensive clinical trial program for Keppra® and this positive news follows closely behind two recent European approvals for Keppra® - a new intravenous formulation, and a new indication as add-on therapy in the treatment of myoclonic seizures in Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy.

We look forward to receiving the final determination of the European Commission and to making Keppra® available as a first-line treatment to epilepsy patients." The submission is based on a well-controlled Phase III non-inferiority monotherapy trial comparing Keppra® with optimized use of controlled-release (CR) carbamazepine.

Data from this trial demonstrated that Keppra® was non-inferior to CR-carbamazepine when used as monotherapy in the first-line treatment of adult patients with partial or generalised tonic-clonic seizures, and showed a more favourable tolerability profile(1). In this trial Keppra® demonstrated six and twelve month seizure freedom rates of 73.0% and 56.6%, respectively when used as monotherapy in newly diagnosed patients(1).

About Keppra® In Europe, Keppra® (levetiracetam) is indicated as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial onset seizures with or without secondary generalisation in adults and children from 4 years of age with epilepsy and as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of myoclonic seizures in adults and adolescents from 12 years of age with Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy. In Europe Keppra® is also indicated for intravenous administration and is available as 100mg/ml concentrate for solution for infusion.

In the U.S., Keppra® is indicated as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of partial onset seizures in adults and children 4 years of age and older with epilepsy. Keppra® is associated with the occurrence of central nervous system adverse events including somnolence and fatigue, behavioural abnormalities, as well as hematological abnormalities. In adults, Keppra® is also associated with co-ordination difficulties. In pediatric patients 4-16 years of age, the most common adverse events associated with Keppra® in combination with other AEDs were somnolence, accidental injury, hostility, nervousness and asthenia.

In adults, the most common adverse events associated with Keppra® in combination with other AEDs were somnolence, asthenia, infection and dizziness. Please consult local prescribing information. For the U.S., prescribing information is available at www.keppra.com.

About UCB UCB (www.ucb-group.com) is a leading global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the research, development and commercialisation of innovative pharmaceutical and biotechnology products in the fields of central nervous system disorders, allergy/respiratory diseases, immune and inflammatory disorders and oncology - UCB focuses on securing a leading position in severe disease categories. Employing over 8,300 people in 40 countries, UCB achieved revenue of 2.3 billion euro in 2005. UCB is listed on the Euronext Brussels Exchange. Worldwide headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium.

Seizures are not only present in Epilepsy

If you've ever watched another person have a seizure, you never forget it - the terrifying transformation, the storm of convulsions, the indignity of it, the relief when it's over.

Your first hint may be the twitch of the thumb or eyelid, a dropping of the voice in midsentence. Then you sense the person slipping from consciousness.

The capacity to seize is not limited to people with epilepsy. We're all capable of seizures under certain conditions.

A seizure is an electrical "storm" in the brain that appears to have adaptive value, a sort of flushing of all circuits, followed by a shutdown and a reboot. It's a lifesaving trick for the brain.

For days to weeks after a seizure, most people have abnormal patterns of brainwaves on their EEGs, which traces activity. But some people have seizures with no electrical changes in their brains.

Outwardly, they appear to have a typical seizure, but the EEG is normal.

These nonelectrical seizures suggest the possibility of a psychiatric disorder called conversion disorder, the involuntary manifestation of the signs of an illness without the causal pathology.

These people are not fakers or malingerers. Many of them also have electrical seizures at times. The best way to figure out which seizures are nonelectrical is through a two-day evaluation by a neurologist in a hospital. Often, but not always, such a study can distinguish the tricks of the mind from the tricks of the brain. Then the right treatment can begin.

Brain pacemaker may treat Epileptic seizures

Scientists in America have developed a treatment for epilepsy which they say could help millions of people with the condition. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hope to try out the neurological pacemaker, which detects and treats seizures before they happen, this summer.

"Unlike so many other illnesses where we can easily measure what's going on, epilepsy has been difficult to understand," said Professor John Guttag of MIT, who is supervising the project. "It's one of the main reasons there has been so much of a stigma attached to the condition - for centuries epileptics were even thought to be possessed by the devil."

The new procedure is based around an existing treatment known as vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). A small electrical device is planted in the body which sends regular electrical pulses to the brain, usually one every five minutes throughout the day. Experts at MIT say they have developed a method of analysing the brain's activity which can be used alongside VNS to prevent seizures from occurring.

By using electrodes attached to a cap, the system can monitor neurological activity and determine when an episode is likely. A message is then sent to the VNS implant, which sends a specific shock to prevent the incident, rather than the scatter-gun of electric shocks currently used.
Researchers say this will dramatically reduce the number of pulses sent to the brain and more effectively control epilepsy.

MIT researcher Ali Shoeb, who developed the system, and Steven Schacter, an expert in VNS, say they are preparing to test the procedure on a handful of patients over the next few months. Tests using existing data have encouraged them to think that success could lead to much wider adoption of VNS as a treatment for neurological problems.

Around 456,000 people have epilepsy in Britain, a third of whom cannot be treated with medication. Even those who can use medical controls are often plagued with unpleasant side-effects. Nerve stimulation has proved a successful alternative, with around two-thirds of all patients experiencing significant improvements.

Although VNS therapies involve a surgical procedure the success rates are high, and non-invasive diagnosis could not only revolutionise the way that epilepsy is treated, but also be applicable to a number of other neurological disorders.

There are some similarities to deep brain stimulation techniques which are being developed to help stop the symptoms of Parkinson's disease or severe depression, but these involve placing electrodes directly into the brain.

Experts say that if the new analytical technique is successful, it could provide similar kinds of relief without being so surgically invasive.

"All research has to be welcomed because we're still trying to understand exactly what is happening in epileptic seizures," said Margaret Thomas, a spokeswoman for the National Society for Epilepsy. "Vagus nerve stimulation works for some people but not everyone - but we are looking forward to the results of any clinical trials."

The team behind the new system say they are still some way from reaching the public, and each device will need to be tailored to the individual patient. "At the moment we have developed a diagnostic tool," said Professor Guttag. "But there will be some serious development work to make it small and portable, not in the sense of needing a scientific breakthrough but lots of hard engineering."