Landau-Kleffner syndrome clinical, eletroencepholographic and psychosocial aspects : long-term follow-up / Sindrome de Landau Kleffner aspectos clinicos, eletrencefalograficos e psicossociais : estudo de seguimento a longo prazo
AUTOR(ES)
Marcos Henrique Coelho Duran
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO
2008
RESUMO
Purpose: Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS) is a rare entity characterized by epilepsy and aphasia. It occurs in previously normal children, usually between 3 and 7 years of age. The long-term outcome of the LKS is not completely clear. The aim of this study is to verify the long-term follow-up of a group of patients with LKS, focusing on clinical aspects, EEG, and quality of life. Methods: This was a transversal study. Between November 2006 and April 2007 seven patients with LKS were interviewed. They were seven males and were between eight and 27 years old. At onset, all patients had aphasia and verbal auditory agnosia and only one never had seizures. At onset, all patients had interictal epileptiform discharges, and two of them presented with ESES. Parents and/or patients were interviewed by one of the authors according to a structured questionnaire. The Vineland Adaptive Scales, the Conner?s Rating Scales Revised and Short-Form Health Survey (SF 36) were used. Each patient had a prolonged interictal electroencephalographic recording. Results: The present investigation revealed that two patients still have seizures. One patient had total and three others had partial remission of language disturbance, while three patients still have aphasia and verbal auditory agnosia. Concerning quality of life, only one of our patients has a normal life nowadays. All six patients with some sort of limitation refer that aphasia/agnosia is the main difficulty of their lives. Five patients have normal EEG. Conclusions: The long-term follow-up of patients with LKS show that epilepsy and EEG abnormalities tend to disappear while language disturbance tend to persist in most of them. Age of onset does not correlate with the prognosis. Patients with LKS have an overall poor quality of life mostly due to language difficulties
ASSUNTO(S)
epilepsy childhood aphasia epilepsia agnosia infancia afasia
