Epilepsy

Epilepsy, a seizure-causing disorder, occurs in cats and dogs as well as human beings. According to scientists at the Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine, a genetic factor among dogs "has been proven or is highly suspicious as causing epilepsy in the German shepherd, beagle, keeshond, Belgian tervuren and Belgian shepherd. " Though no genetic factors have yet been found, the Cornell scientists also report a high incidence in poodles, wire-haired terriers, cocker spaniels, Saint Bernards, Irish setters, collies, boxers and dachshunds.

British doctors reported last week that they were using magnetic scanning techniques to identify brain tumors that cause epilepsy and removing the tumors with almost total success. The tumors have been identified as a cause of epilepsy only in the past five years, and doctors have just started using new scanning methods to find them. But neurologists at Britain's National Society for Epilepsy said they had used magnetic resonance scanning to find the tumors and then surgically removed them with great success.

Welcome to the real world, kids. A look at "Disney Sunday Movie" suggests that the studio's new management, under Michael Eisner, is attempting to lure young audiences with less fantasy and much more reality than Uncle Walt ever used. This weekend's ABC film, "A Fighting Choice" (Channel 6 at 7 p.m. Sunday), is about teenager Kellin Taylor (played by Patrick Dempsey) who suffers from epilepsy. His concerned, devoted parents, Meg and Thad (Karen Valentine and Beau Bridges) are protective of the lad, who desperately wants to lead a normal life.

In the 15 years she has battled epilepsy, Erinn Farver has tried countless medications and even explored the possibility of a brain operation. But the drugs have done little but make her sleepy, and her seizures are not the type that disappear with surgery. Now, she is hoping that the latest innovation in epilepsy therapy - an electronic brain stimulator - will make the difference. On Dec. 15, surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center made her one of the first patients in the nation to receive the device, which looks like a hockey puck and is inserted in the chest just beneath the collarbone.

Johnson & Johnson said Thursday it was recalling two lots of the prescription drug Topamax, often used to treat epilepsy, because of four complaints about odors that the company attributes to chemicals used to treat shipping pallets. The 100mg tablets (60 per bottle) were in lots 0KG110 and 0LG222. Lot numbers can be seen on the packaging. Patients can contact their doctor, pharmacist or the company to return the products. The pills were produced by the Ortho-McNeil Neurologics Division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary.

LONDON - GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International say they may have to wait an extra three months for the U.S. regulatory review of their potential epilepsy treatment ezogabine. The two companies said today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has extended its target date under the Prescription Drug User Act to review ezogabine to Nov. 30 from Aug. 30. Ezogabine is designed for patients already taking one to three other anti-epileptic drugs. Glaxo, which is based in London and has operations in the Philadelphia area, and Valeant, which is based in Aliso Viejo, Calif.

Much has been done to help many people live well with epilepsy - the subtle, complex, sometimes devastating, brain disorder that afflicts more than 2 million Americans. But "Curing Epilepsy" was the goal last week of an unusual White House-initiated meeting of patients, clinicians and researchers. The cure - or cures - for epilepsy may still be a long way off, said Gerald Fischbach, the conference chairman and director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a unit of the National Institutes of Health.

Not even his wife's vertigo and nausea cooled the passion of Charles Bagley. In fact, he may have taken advantage of it, according to testimony yesterday in his murder trial. Yvonne Bagley's family doctor said she had complained of vertigo and nausea three times in the months before she died. This bolsters Bagley's contention that his wife suffered vertigo, nausea and an ailment called "hot water epilepsy" peculiar to people from Yvonne Bagley's native Bangalore, India.

People with epilepsy who aren't helped by medication stand a good chance of getting rid of their seizures if they have a piece of their brain surgically removed, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Doctors at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia followed the progress of 89 patients who had brain surgery for epilepsy and found that 70 percent of them remained seizure-free five years later. An additional 9 percent had seizures on fewer than three days per year or suffered only nighttime seizures.

The Board of Education wants to dismiss a high school teacher accused of exposing himself to a female student during an epileptic seizure last June. Stephen Ford, a tenured social-studies teacher at Willingboro High School, behaved inappropriately, according to charges filed by a school administrator and certified with the Board of Education. Ford, who has a form of epilepsy that causes occasional seizures, is contesting the charge of unbecoming conduct. "The board is vigorously pursuing his removal," said Joan Josephson, an attorney for the district.

In the early morning hours before the start of the second day of the 2005 NFL draft, Joe Banner awoke to a crash . . . crash . . . crash. By the time Banner reached the hallway, the pounding had stopped. His 10-year-old son, Jason, was sprawled on the bathroom tile. "I found him in the bathroom, on the floor and totally incoherent," Banner said. Jason was having a seizure and had been stumbling into walls. His father thought it might be a stroke. The Banner family rushed to the emergency room at Children's Hospital.

Johnson & Johnson said Thursday it was recalling two lots of the prescription drug Topamax, often used to treat epilepsy, because of four complaints about odors that the company attributes to chemicals used to treat shipping pallets. The 100mg tablets (60 per bottle) were in lots 0KG110 and 0LG222. Lot numbers can be seen on the packaging. Patients can contact their doctor, pharmacist or the company to return the products. The pills were produced by the Ortho-McNeil Neurologics Division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary.

LONDON - GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International say they may have to wait an extra three months for the U.S. regulatory review of their potential epilepsy treatment ezogabine. The two companies said today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has extended its target date under the Prescription Drug User Act to review ezogabine to Nov. 30 from Aug. 30. Ezogabine is designed for patients already taking one to three other anti-epileptic drugs. Glaxo, which is based in London and has operations in the Philadelphia area, and Valeant, which is based in Aliso Viejo, Calif.

Pankaja Kooveli Kadaba, 81, of Newtown Square, founder of a drug-discovery firm based at Cheyney University and holder of several chemical patents, died of esophageal cancer Thursday at the Neighborhood Hospice in West Chester. The focus of K&K Biosciences Inc. - the business she began in Lexington, Ky., in 1993, after she left the University of Kentucky faculty - was developing drugs for epilepsy and strokes. "My mother was a pioneer," said her daughter, Lini, an Inquirer staff writer.

The Board of Education wants to dismiss a high school teacher accused of exposing himself to a female student during an epileptic seizure last June. Stephen Ford, a tenured social-studies teacher at Willingboro High School, behaved inappropriately, according to charges filed by a school administrator and certified with the Board of Education. Ford, who has a form of epilepsy that causes occasional seizures, is contesting the charge of unbecoming conduct. "The board is vigorously pursuing his removal," said Joan Josephson, an attorney for the district.

A Croydon man with an accident record and a history of epilepsy was charged yesterday with vehicular homicide and aggravated assault in the fatal August crash of his dump truck into two other vehicles and a Newtown bank branch. Prosecutors said Steven S. Vile Sr., 39, drove his 14-ton gravel truck despite state laws aimed at keeping people with seizure disorders off the road. Bucks County District Attorney Diane E. Gibbons said Vile had killed one driver and seriously injured another on Aug. 3, when his empty truck careered out of control and slammed into the First Union Bank at the Village of Newtown Shopping Center.

If John Modugno feels good, he reminds himself that it won't last long. But he doesn't curse his condition. He has lived with grand mal epilepsy since age 4, and he is used to the routines of living in a body that at least once a week deprives him of control. He walks from his Burlington City home to the grocery store several times a week because he can carry only a few days' worth of food. The pain shooting through his feet slows him, and it takes half an hour to walk the few short blocks.

Much has been done to help many people live well with epilepsy - the subtle, complex, sometimes devastating, brain disorder that afflicts more than 2 million Americans. But "Curing Epilepsy" was the goal last week of an unusual White House-initiated meeting of patients, clinicians and researchers. The cure - or cures - for epilepsy may still be a long way off, said Gerald Fischbach, the conference chairman and director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a unit of the National Institutes of Health.

Tara Morris suffered her first epileptic seizures at age 5. They progressed from minor to major. And in her efforts to control them, she underwent dangerous brain surgery and took medications so strong they affected her ability to concentrate. But nothing helped. And then, Morris, now 27, found out about the "Cyberonics' vagus stimulator" surfing the Internet. "I'd felt hopeless until then," she says. The vagus stimulator - or to use its official name, the NeuroCybernetic Prosthesis System - is a kind of pacemaker for the brain.

In the 15 years she has battled epilepsy, Erinn Farver has tried countless medications and even explored the possibility of a brain operation. But the drugs have done little but make her sleepy, and her seizures are not the type that disappear with surgery. Now, she is hoping that the latest innovation in epilepsy therapy - an electronic brain stimulator - will make the difference. On Dec. 15, surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center made her one of the first patients in the nation to receive the device, which looks like a hockey puck and is inserted in the chest just beneath the collarbone.