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       #Post#: 108--------------------------------------------------
       (Abst.) Prophylactic antiepileptic treatment to reduce seizure f
       requency in PML
       By: agate Date: January 11, 2014, 10:52 am
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       It seems Tysabri-related PML can bring on severe seizures.
       From PubMed, January 11, 2014:
       [quote]Ther Adv Neurol Disord. 2014 Jan;7(1):3-6. doi:
       10.1177/1756285613503515.
       Prophylactic antiepileptic treatment reduces seizure frequency
       in natalizumab-associated progressive multifocal
       leukoencephalopathy
       Hoepner R1, Dahlhaus S2, Kollar S2, Zurawski B2, Chan A2,
       Kleiter I2, Gold R2, Hellwig K2.
       Author information
       1Department of Neurology, Ruhr University Bochum, St
       Josef-Hospital, Gudrunstr. 56; 44719 Bochum; Germany.
       2Department of Neurology, Ruhr University Bochum, St
       Josef-Hospital, Germany.
       OBJECTIVE:
       Little is known about seizures in natalizumab-associated
       progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (NAT-PML).
       METHODS:
       A review of clinical records of 15 NAT-PML patients with
       multiple sclerosis (MS) treated at a German university hospital.
       RESULTS:
       Some 53% (8/15) of our patients developed seizures with often
       multiple semiologies (seven grand mal, three simple partial
       motor and two psychomotor seizures). Series of seizures or
       status epilepticus occurred in seven of these eight. Seizure
       onset was on average 61 days after onset of NAT-PML and was
       associated with immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome
       (IRIS) in five of eight patients. After having observed severe
       seizures during NAT-PML in seven of our first nine patients, we
       started preventive antiepileptic treatment (PAT) with
       levetiracetam (1000-1750 mg/day). Patient subgroups analyzed for
       seizures and PAT did not differ in baseline characteristics.
       Only one of six patients, who received PAT, had a seizure
       compared with seven of nine patients without PAT (2-tailed
       Fisher's exact test, p = 0.04).
       CONCLUSIONS:
       Although the small sample size and retrospective nature of the
       study are limitations, we propose to treat NAT-PML patients with
       PAT early after diagnosis, as seizures seem to be common and
       severe in NAT-PML.
       PMID: 24409198 [PubMed][/quote]
       The abstract can be seen here
  HTML http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24409198.
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