1043-3155 Pediatr Neurol Briefs pedneurbriefs Pediatr Neurol Briefs Pediatric Neurology Briefs Pediatr Neurol Briefs 2166-6482 1043-3155 2166-3155 Pediatric Neurology Briefs Publishers Chicago, IL, USA PNB-12-19-a 10.15844/pedneurbriefs-12-3-3 Seizure Disorders Neurology Pediatrics Nervous System Diseases Child Development Brain Diseases Neurosurgery Child Infant Familial Occurrence in Newly Diagnosed Epilepsy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0173-7931 Millichap J. Gordon MD 1 2 * Division of Neurology, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL Departments of Pediatrics and Neurology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL Correspondence: Dr. J. Gordon Millichap, E-mail: jgmillichap@northwestern.edu 03 1998 01 05 2016 12 3 19 19 Copyright: © 1998 The Author(s) 1998 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Familial occurrence of epilepsy in children with newly diagnosed multiple seizures: Dutch Study of Epilepsy in Childhood

The familial occurrence of epilepsy among 462 children with newly diagnosed multiple unprovoked seizures was studied at the Leiden University Medical Centre, and other hospitals in the Netherlands.

 Multiple Unprovoked Seizures Epilepsies Less Common Cryptogenic Epilepsy

The familial occurrence of epilepsy among 462 children with newly diagnosed multiple unprovoked seizures was studied at the Leiden University Medical Centre, and other hospitals in the Netherlands. Epilepsy was classified as generalized in 57% of the probands, localization-related in 42%, and undetermined in 1%. Compared to the total group, generalized epilepsies were more common (77%) and localization-related epilepsies less common (23%) in the 10% of cases found to be familial. Epilepsy occurred in 58 first-degree and 21 other relatives. The majority (83%) of first degree relatives with idiopathic or cryptogenic epilepsy had the same seizure type as the proband. [1]

COMMENT. Epilepsy is familial in 10% of newly diagnosed cases in childhood. Those with a positive family history are most likely to have generalized, idiopathic or cryptogenic seizures. The relatives of familial cases usually had the same seizure type as the newly diagnosed child. The role of genetic factors in the pathogenesis of idiopathic generalized childhood epilepsy is supported by this study.

Callenbach PM Geerts AT Arts WF van Donselaar CA Peters AC Stroink H Familial occurrence of epilepsy in children with newly diagnosed multiple seizures: Dutch Study of Epilepsy in Childhood Epilepsia 1998 Mar 39 3 331 6 10.1111/j.1528-1157.1998.tb01382.x 9578054