Abstract

VALDIVIA ALVAREZ, Ileana  and  MARRERO MARTINEZ, Pedro. Etiological characterization of the symptomatic Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. Rev Cubana Pediatr [online]. 2012, vol.84, n.1, pp.22-32. ISSN 0034-7531.

Introduction: the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is an age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy very severe due to its drug-resistance and the associated inabilities. Objectives: to characterize the symptomatic Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, according to sex, onset age and diagnosis, type of predominant crises, findings in neuroimage and etiology. Methods: a retrospective and descriptive study was conducted in 36 patients discharged from the neuropediatric service of the "Juan Manuel Márquez" Children Hospital diagnosed with symptomatic Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and underwent neuroimage studies (computerized axial tomography and nuclear magnetic resonance). Qualitative variables were statistically described by means of absolute frequencies and percentage figures. For interesting percentages, its 95 % confidence interval (CI) was estimated (95 % CI). Results and conclusions: the symptomatic Lennox-Gastaut syndrome was more frequent in males starting with epilepsy before one year old. The 33 % had West's syndrome. More than 60 % was diagnosed before the four years old. The more frequent crises were the tonic and atonic ones of neck. The CAT allows locating zones of atrophy and few structural lesions signaled b y nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) as alterations of neuronal migration. After the central nervous system (CNS) malformations, the more frequent cause was the perinatal hypoxia.

Keywords : Lennox-Gastaut syndrome; etiology; neuroimage; atonic crises; tonic crises.

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