DOES EPILEPTOGENESIS ALTER FUNCTION IN TREATED SPASMS (DEAFITS)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
DOES EPILEPTOGENESIS IN WEST SYNDROME ALTER AUDITORY TEMPORAL LOBE FUNCTION (DEAF) - a proof of principle study
IRAS ID
218077
Contact name
Tangunu Fosi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
16NC26, Division of Research and Innovation, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The most common severe epilepsy of childhood, Infantile Spasms (IS), is accompanied by poor longterm cognitive development. The reasons for this are unclear.
A model is provided by the commonest acquired cause of IS. This occurs from a newborn baby having experienced low blood glucose levels, a situation termed
'neonatal hypoglycaemic brain injury'. The predominant belief among paediatricians has been that the cognitive outcome in this setting essentially reflects the initial hypoglycaemia, rather than the subsequent recurrent seizures of IS. This study reasoned that if this popular notion holds true, then little difference should exist between objective measures of brain function in infants with similar neonatal hypoglycaemic brain injury irrespective of the development of IS.The study measures brain function using a special electroencephalography (EEG) technique, which measures specific brain waves to sound pattern. The particular brainwave being studied ('mismatch negativity event-related potential') reflects the function of the most abundant chemical system for relaying information in the developing brain (termed glutamate n-methyl-d-aspartate transmission). The study compares this specific brainwave in infants who had hypoglycaemia-without-infantile-spasms (Group A) versus those who experienced hypoglycaemia-and-infantile-spasms (Group B).
The study will determine if there are changes in the brainwaves that might reflect the process by which the brain develops epilepsy (this process is known as ‘epileptogenesis’) following neonatal hypoglycaemic brain injury.
REC name
London - Surrey Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0808
Date of REC Opinion
9 Oct 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion