Fits, Faints and Funny Turns Flashcards
What are definitions of:
- seizure/fit
- syncope
- convulsion
- epileptic seizure
- Seizure/fit
- Any sudden attack from whatever cause
- Syncope
- Faint (neuro-cardiogenic mechanism)
- Convulsion
- Seizure where there is prominent motor activity
- Epileptic seizure
- An electrical phenomenon
Epilepsy - pathology
- An abnormal excessive hyper synchronous discharge from a group of cortical neurons
Epilepsy - presentation
- Does not always have clinical manifestations
- Depends on
- Seizure location, degree of anatomical spread over cortex, duration
- Paroxysmal change in motor, sensory or cognitive function
What do the clinical manifestations of epilepsy depend on?
- Depends on
- Seizure location, degree of anatomical spread over cortex, duration
What are different kinds of non-epileptic seizures and other mimics in children?
- Acute symptomatic seizures
- Due to insults such as hypoxia-ischaemia, hypoglycaemia, infection, trauma
- Reflex anoxic seizure
- Common in toddlers
- Syncope
- Parasonias
- Such as night terrors
- Behavioural stereotypes
- Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES)
What are febrile convulsions?
A seizure occurring in infancy/childhood:
- Usually between 3 months and 5 years
- Associated with fever but without evidence of infection or defined cause for seizure
What is febrile convulsions associated with?
A seizure occurring in infancy/childhood:
- Usually between 3 months and 5 years
- Associated with fever but without evidence of infection or defined cause for seizure
What is the commonest cause of acute symptomatic seizure in childhood?
Febrile convulsions
What are some terms people might use to describe a seizure, and what type of seizure do they correlate with?
- Jerk/shake
- Clinic, myoclonic, spasms
- Stiff
- Tonic seizure
- Fall
- Atonic/tonic/myoclonic
- Vacant attack
- Absence, complex partial seizure
Epilepsy - aetiology
- Majority are idiopathic
- Mostly familial
What is the most common kind of epileptic seizure?
- Most are generalised seizures
Describe the mechanism of the fit in epilepsy?
- Chemically triggered by
- Decreased inhibition (gama-amino-butyric acid, GABA)
- Excessive excitation (glutamate and asparate)
- Excessive influx of Na and Cl ions
- This produces electrical current
- Summation of electrical potentials results in depolarisation of many neurons which can lead to seizures that can be recorded from surface by electroencephalogram (EEG)
What can record the depolarisations of neurons causing seizure?
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
What is an epileptic fit chemically triggered by?
- Chemically triggered by
- Decreased inhibition (gama-amino-butyric acid, GABA)
- Excessive excitation (glutamate and asparate)
- Excessive influx of Na and Cl ions
In an epileptic fit, what causes the:
- decreased inhibition
- excessive excitation
- Chemically triggered by
- Decreased inhibition (gama-amino-butyric acid, GABA)
- Excessive excitation (glutamate and asparate)
- Excessive influx of Na and Cl ions
