Disease relevance of Epilepsy, Tonic-Clonic

• A 29-year-old woman with a five-year history of systemic lupus erythematosus was seen after having had a grand mal convulsion, her first manifestation of a seizure disorder [1].
• To elucidate the consequences of convulsions, we examined biochemically and electrophysiologically the brains of mice that had sustained two complete tonic-clonic convulsions after administration of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ 50 mg/kg intraperitoneally, i.p.), 48 and 24 h before decapitation [2].
• Pyridoxal phosphate and its synthetic analogues--pyridoxal 5'-sulphate and the 5-phosphonoethyl analogue of pyridoxal (phosphonoethyl pyridoxal) in doses of 0.125-0.250 (mumol/10 microliters/i.c.v./rat), caused epileptic seizures characterized by running fits, vocalization, muscular fasciculation and tonic-clonic convulsions [3].
• Considerable improvement occurred with patients with myoclonic jerks and tonic-clonic convulsions, and with photosensitive epilepsy [4].
• PURPOSE: NER is a mutant rat strain that exhibits spontaneous tonic-clonic convulsions accompanied by epileptic discharges on ictal EEG and serves as a model for generalized tonic-clonic seizures in humans [5].

High impact information on Epilepsy, Tonic-Clonic

• We found therapeutic intervention with phenobarbital or phenytoin ineffective, whereas intervention with vigabatrin or the GABAB receptor antagonist CGP 35348 (ref. 2) prevented tonic-clonic convulsions and significantly enhanced survival of the mutant mice [6].
• Eyelid twitching seizures and generalized tonic-clonic convulsions: a syndrome of idiopathic generalized epilepsy [7].
• We measured plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations after a single spontaneous tonic-clonic convulsion in 17 patients to determine whether similar changes occur and to determine their magnitude [8].
• The results demonstrate formation of cysteinyl-LT following tonic-clonic convulsions in spontaneously convulsing gerbils which could be enhanced by inhibition of the cyclooxygenase pathway of arachidonic acid metabolism [9].
• A twofold increase in cerebral arachidonic acid was seen at the time of the first generalized tonic-clonic convulsion [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Epilepsy, Tonic-Clonic

• We studied the antiepileptic potency of vigabatrin (gamma-vinyl GABA, GVG) as an open trial in a group of 36 mentally handicapped patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (30 had seizures of partial onset and 6 had primary generalized [PG] tonic-clonic convulsions) [11].
• Considering the incidence of tonic-clonic convulsions, tolerance to the protective effects of diazepam was evident by day 5 if the mice were challenged with PTZ (120 mg/kg), by day 10 if the challenge was picrotoxin (8 mg/kg) and by day 20 if the challenge was PTZ (105 mg/kg) [12].
• Rats injected with kainic acid were initially lethargic and then proceeded through behavioral phases of staring, "wet-dog shakes", Straub tail, rearing, forepaw clonus, and, in some cases, tonic-clonic convulsions [13].
• These findings indicate that the seizures induced by administration of lithium and pilocarpine accurately model generalized tonic-clonic epilepsy [14].
• Doses of diazepam 4 times higher (4 mg/kg) than necessary to prevent tonic-clonic convulsions induced by pentylenetetrazol were ineffective against tremor, convulsions or death produced by oxotremorine (10 or 15 mg/kg) unless given in conjunction with atropine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)[15]

Biological context of Epilepsy, Tonic-Clonic

• The encephalopathy manifested 3-17 days after disease onset with confusion, followed rapidly by tremor (seven patients), grand mal convulsions (seven), abnormal posturing (three) and coma (eight); focal neurological signs and evidence of raised intracranial pressure were not seen [16].

Anatomical context of Epilepsy, Tonic-Clonic

• The present experiment examined this hypothesis by comparing sleep-waking state percentages and the number of after-discharge-eliciting stimulations required to induce generalized tonic-clonic convulsions with the amygdala kindling model of epilepsy in 3 groups of cats (n = 5 each) [17].

Gene context of Epilepsy, Tonic-Clonic

• These findings suggest that an abnormality in PDGF-BB release may make El mice susceptible to tonic-clonic convulsions [18].
• At 4 h following pilocarpine-induced seizures, expression of NGF, BDNF, HB-EGF, and FGF-2 increased only in the mice manifesting tonic-clonic convulsions and not in mice without seizures [19].
• Routine monitoring of nonstimulated animals revealed spontaneous tonic-clonic convulsions in 100% of NER and 64.2% of (F1 x NER) backcross animals, but no seizures in F344 or F1 [5].
• The biologic cofactor, pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP), is responsible for tonic-clonic convulsion in immature mice [20].
• In contrast, GAERS were less susceptible than NE rats to the tonic-clonic convulsions induced by the inhibitors of glutamate decarboxylase, isoniazide and 3-mercaptopropionic acid [21].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Epilepsy, Tonic-Clonic

• We found that after intraperitoneal injection of rhaFGF in kainic acid-treated rats, tonic-clonic convulsions and mortality were decreased by 74% and 77%, respectively [22].

References