Epilepsy a

Apuntes

Epilepsy an epileptic seizure us the result of a temporary physiologic dysfunction of thr brain it is caused by an abnormal and self- limited, hypersynchronous electrical discharge of cortical neurons electrical signals: ions flowing in and out through protein channels the ion flow is mediated through neurotransmitters Neurotransmitters bind to receptors to either open up or close the ion channels during a seiuzure clusters of neurons in the brain become temporaly impaired and start sending repetitive excitatory signals over and over again too little inhibition too much excitation 7 Open - closed - L T excitation - glutamate NMDA receptors let calcium in inhibition - GABA patients with epilepsy have fast or long lasting activation of NMDA receptors and disfunctional GABA receptors GABA receptors let cl ions negative ions that inhibit signals altough seizures are the cardinal manifestation of epilepsy, not all seizures imply epilepsy Acute symptomatic seizures refer to seizures that occur only during the course of an acute medical or neurological illness such as metabolic disarray or drug intoxication Epilepsy: chronic disease of the brain defined by any of the following conditions:...