From the Editor's Desk

On behalf of Editorial Board Members of International Journal of Epilepsy, I am happy to present you the current issue of IJEP 2017.

This issue has interesting original articles. The first one by Dahiya et al. studied plasma tetranectin as a potential clinical biomarker for epilepsy and correlation with clinical and social characteristics. The study showed that plasma tetranectin level in PWE were significantly decreased as the disease progressed irrespective of the stage of epilepsy. Thus, tetranectin could be considered as a potential progressive biomarker for epilepsy. The study outcome suggests further investigation for the possible link of tetranectin levels with clinical and social parameters.

The second research article by R.K. Singh et al. is a comparative study of seizures in arterial and venous stroke. The study revealed that cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) results in more frequent and early seizures whereas in arterial stroke late seizures are common. Post stroke seizures in ischemic stroke were predicted by carotid territory infarction and venous stroke by parenchymal involvement.

In another interesting research work conducted by Srivastava et al., recurrence rate and risk factors for recurrence of seizures after withdrawal of antiepileptic drugs (AED) in Indian children treated for epilepsy was studied. The study pointed towards a recurrence rate of 32% and this risk was associated with difficult to control epilepsy and associated co-morbidities.

Christine Walker and Chris Peterson in his work studied the social impact of epilepsy. His work in Australia showed that the effects of stigma and the unpredictability of epilepsy far outweigh the effects of prosperity for people with epilepsy.

This issue also features three extensive reviews. The first and most interesting is a review on Lacosamide as monotherapy in focal seizure by Kishore Sonkusare, Other two reviews are on studying bone health in Epilepsy Patient and Incidence of epilepsy in South America and Caribbean respectively.

There are also two noteworthy case reports by Umesh Kalane and an interesting image of the month.

Like our previous issues, you will also find other feature in this issue like teaching EEGs which are interesting to read.

Your valuable suggestions/inputs are solicited.

No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).