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-23-92-b 10.15844/pedneurbriefs-23-12-5 Paroxysmal Disorders Neurology Pediatrics Nervous System Diseases Child Development Brain Diseases Neurosurgery Child Infant Frontal-Temporal Brain Volumes in Absence Epilepsy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0173-7931 Millichap J. Gordon MD 1 2 * Division of Neurology, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, 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 12 2009 01 12 2015 23 12 92 92 Copyright: © 2009 The Author(s) 2009 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. Frontal and temporal volumes in childhood absence epilepsy

Fronto-temporal brain volumes and their association with clinical and psychological variables in children, aged 7.5-11.8 years, with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) were compared to age and gender-matched children without epilepsy.

 Childhood Absence Epilepsy Brain Volumes Absence Epilepsy

Fronto-temporal brain volumes and their association with clinical and psychological variables in children, aged 7.5-11.8 years, with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) were compared to age and gender-matched children without epilepsy. The CAE group (n=26) had significantly smaller gray matter volumes of the left orbital frontal gyrus and both temporal lobes vs controls (n=37). Brain volumes in CAE children were related to age, gender, ethnicity, and pregnancy complications but not to seizure, IQ, and psychopathology variables. In controls without epilepsy, brain volumes were related to IQ. [1]

COMMENT. This study supports the theory of an orbital frontal focus for CAE spikes [2], and a symptomatic localization related cause for CAE, Lack of an association between orbital frontal gyrus gray matter volumes and seizure variables suggests that an underlying neuropathology, not seizures, affects brain development in children with CAE.

Caplan R Levitt J Siddarth P Wu KN Gurbani S Sankar R Frontal and temporal volumes in Childhood Absence Epilepsy Epilepsia 2009 Nov 50 11 2466 2472 10.1111/j.1528-1167.2009.02198.x 19624714 Holmes MD Brown M Tucker DM Are “generalized” seizures truly generalized? Evidence of localized mesial frontal and frontopolar discharges in absence Epilepsia 2004 Dec 45 12 1568 1579 10.1111/j.0013-9580.2004.23204.x 15571515