I am extremely delighted to present the second issue of International Journal of Epilepsy (IJEP). I would like to express my gratitude to Thieme Publications for their hard work
and dedication in compiling this current issue. Some of the very interesting and time-relevant
research works are featured in this issue. IJEP is now in its second volume with Thieme Publications. This current issue contains
five original research articles, one extensive review article, three case reports,
one technical note, one letter to the editor, and forty-seven conference abstracts.
This issue features one extensive review by Patil et al on studying continuous electroencephalography
monitoring in intensive care unit. One of the five interesting original research works
by Kamel et al attempted to find the relationship between heat shock protein 70 (HsP70)
expression and neuronal damage after seizure, where they found a significantly higher
level of HsP70 in children with epileptic and febrile seizures than in normal healthy
children, suggesting its beneficial role in confirming the diagnosis of epilepsy.
Another informative original article by Fabrizio Rinaldi assessed the efficacy and
safety of perampanel as an add-on treatment in adult patients with refractory focal
onset seizures, where it achieved meaningful clinical improvement in almost two-thirds
of such patients.
With the advent of newer investigating modalities, machine learning is becoming one
of the advanced techniques in the neurodiagnostic field. Such a study conducted by
Balakrishnan et al demonstrated higher accuracy in detecting abnormal electrical signals
in startle type epileptic seizures using machine learning technique.
We have included three noteworthy case reports. One interesting case report by Azevedo
Kauppila et al deals with a case of Dravet syndrome, which is associated with severely
refractory seizures. In the quest of finding possible role of serotonergic drugs in
such cases, they find the possible role of trazodone as an antiepileptic drug for
Dravet syndrome. Another beautiful and rare case report by Kiran et al showed the
unusual coexistence of temporo-occipital polymicrogyria with choroidal fissure cyst
in a case of focal onset seizures.
Besides regularly publishing articles, we are happy to inform you that we have included
forty-seven recent conference abstracts presented at ECON 2019 that will provide a
quick review to the readers, covering broader areas of latest developments in epilepsy.
I hope it will be an interesting and helpful read for all.
I would like to thank our editorial board members, reviewers, nationally and internationally
acclaimed epilepsy experts as well as the whole technical team for their constant
efforts and active participation. With all your sincere association, hopefully we
will try to maintain the standard of the journal and continue to serve in updating
knowledge. Finally, any constructive inputs and valuable suggestions to improve the
journal ahead will be highly appreciated.
