CLINICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF CONVULSIVE DISORDERS IN CHILDREN

Abstract

Epilepsy is a common medical condition, affecting 0.5-1% of all children. The highest incidence of epilepsy is in the first year of life often with significant morbidity. It is not a simple disorder, but a group of CNS disorders, characterized by certain clinical, biochemical and electroencephalographic abnormalities. The features common to all seizures is an abnormal synchronous neural discharge in the brain. The amino acid excitatory neurotransmitters glutamate and aspartate have been consistently implicated in the pathophysiology of human epilepsy. GABA and glycine act as inhibitory neurotransmitter. Thus, deficiencies of inhibitory amino acids, or excessive amounts of excitatory amino acids, result in local disturbances of neuronal activity, which could then lead to epileptic seizures.