The Sharp Minds: Southeast Michigan Epilepsy Education Consortium held its first meeting March 3, hosted by the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center at the Sheraton conference center in Novi, Mich.
The evening course was designed for neurologists, neuroscientists, neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and epilepsy/clinical neurophysiology fellows and neurology residents. The objectives werer to improve the skill and knowledge of academic and community neurologists by reviewing recent developments in epilepsy, epilepsy syndromes, neuroimaging in epilepsy and electroencephalography, as well as improving the safety and quality of care in epilepsy patients, discussing antiepileptic medications and the role of epilepsy surgeries.
Aashit Shah, M.D., professor and acting chair of the WSU Department of Neurology co-director of WSU/DMC Comprehensive Epielpsy Porgram, gave the opening remarks.
"It is about getting the epilepsy experts and educators to share ideas, learn from each other to advance the care for epilepsy patients and enhance research collaboration," he said.
The symposium included a presentation on a research project at each institute presented by the clinician-scientist, followed by a complex epilepsy case presentation by a junior faculty or an epilepsy fellow from the same institute. All five regional academic epilepsy centers -- WSU/DMC Adult comprehensive program, the Pediatric Epilepsy program at Children's Hospital of Michigan, Michigan State University, Henry Ford Hospital and the University of Michigan were represented.
The presentation topics varied widely, beginning with evaluating high frequency oscillations in epilepsy surgery patients and using them in seizure localization prediction by William Stacey, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Michigan, followed by a case study of a young patient with focal seizures who was found to have both benign rolandic epilepsy and an independent low-grade brain glioma by Nancy McNamara, M.D., an epilepsy fellow.
Henry Ford Hospital epileptologist Basel Assaad, M.D., presented a case of post-anoxic myoclonic status epilepticus and the controversies surrounding its definition, diagnosis and prognostication in patients suffering from post-cardiac arrest. Aimee Luat, M.D., a pediatric epileptologist from Children's Hospital of Michigan, presented her group's recent study of clinical and seizure outcomes in children with intractable epilepsy treated with corpus callosotomy, a surgical procedure to disconnect the two halves of brain to control incessant seizures. She also presented a case of a 3-year-old patient with super-refractory status epilepticus, showcasing the usefulness of ketogenic diet as a viable option for the treatment of epilepsy in the intensive care unit.
Tyson Burghardt, M.D., of Michigan State University presented a case series of patients with psychogenic non-epileptic spells, with full neuropsychological and demographic data to highlight the challenges in treatment these patients often face. Mohammad Owais, M.D., clinical neurophysiology fellow at MSU, presented a case of post-concussion epilepsy with both focal and primary generalized seizures.
The evening ended with presentations from Dr. Shah on broad-spectrum frequency analysis of seizures on intracranial EEG in lesional and non-lesional epilepsies. He explained the electrographic differences in seizures, trying to understand subtle differences in brain functioning in various disease states. The last presentation by Deepti Zutshi, M.D., an epileptologist with WSU/DMC, featured the effects of medical marijuana on EEG in a young woman with idiopathic generalized epilepsy, evaluating a novel method.
Despite the icy conditions, the event attracted more than 50 epilepsy specialists from southeast Michigan. The excellent attendance and feedback guarantees a second conference this fall, Dr. Shah said.