The importance of semiological information based on epileptic seizure history

Semiology is the backbone of any correct categorization of seizures, as epileptic or not, focal or bilateral, and is fundamental to elucidating how they are anatomically generated in the brain. An anatomical hypothesis derived from seizure history is the precondition for optimally designed ancillary studies. Without understanding seizure semiology, no rational therapy is possible. This article describes the semiological approach using patient history based on full use of patients’ self-reports as well as descriptions by witnesses. Auras represent the subjective aspects of seizures and provide important semiological clues as observable signs, sometimes including rather precise direct anatomical information. Methods of extracting, facilitating and analysing self-reports including linguistic conversation analysis are presented in detail. It is highlighted that prodromes, seizure triggers and reflex epileptic mechanisms can provide crucial information for diagnostics and therapy. Special issues considering seizure semiology in children are discussed in a separate section. Other sections are dedicated to the two most important issues of differential diagnosis: how to distinguish (1) focal from “generalized” epilepsies, particularly when focal seizure phenomena appear in a bilateral epilepsy; and (2) epileptic from a series of non-epileptic events

Abdominal Epilepsy and Foreign Body in the Abdomen - Dilemma in Diagnosis of Abdominal Pain

There are many medical causes of abdominal pain; abdominal epilepsy is one of the rarer causes. It is a form of temporal lobe epilepsy presenting with abdominal aura. Temporal lobe epilepsy is often idiopathic, however it may be associated with mesial temporal lobe sclerosis, dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors and other benign tumors, arterio-venous malformations, gliomas, neuronal migration defects or gliotic damage as a result of encephalitis. When associated with anatomical abnormality, abdominal epilepsy is difficult to control with medication alone. In such cases, appropriate neurosurgery can provide a cure or, at least, make this condition easier to treat with medication

Somatic embryogenesis from zygotic embryos of Euterpe oleracea Mart.

O objetivo do presente trabalho foi estudar as diferentes respostas morfogenéticas de embriões zigóticos de açaizeiro (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) submetidos a várias condições de cultura in vitro. Os experimentos foram conduzidos em laboratório, com material vegetal coletado de plantas de açaí da Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, Belém-PA, Brasil. Foi possível verificar a expressão de um modelo de embriogênese somática direto, repetitivo e assincronizado em embriões zigóticos maduros cultivados em meio primário MS, suplementado com 339,36 mM de 2,4-diclorofenoxiacético (2,4-D), e transferidos para meio secundário MS na presença de 0,537 mM de ácido 1-naftalenoacético (ANA) e 12,30 mM de 2-isopenteniladenina (2iP). A conversão de embriões somáticos em plântulas foi alcançada aos 210 dias da inoculação com a transferência das culturas para um terceiro meio com a concentração de sais e sacarose reduzida pela metade e ausência de reguladores de crescimento