Abstract
Epileptic seizures might be provoked and/or exacerbated by fever or viral infection in children with epilepsy. However, this is not true for infantile spasms; in this study, we report three cases with infantile spasms became seizure free within 2–5 days following rotavirus gastroenteritis without an exchange or addition of antiepileptic drugs, and hypsarrhythmia evolved to diffuse slow waves or localized spikes on electroencephalography. We propose that the probability regarding the mechanism of spontaneous mitigation is the suppression of immunopathological processes caused by infection, while the possibility of ketogenic effects of diarrhea and intestinal flora recombination after rotavirus gastroenteritis is unlikely. Further study may provide important information concerning the mechanism of seizure control and the applicability to treatment for infantile spasms.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the patients and their families who participated in this study. We also thank all the medical and allied health staff members who cared for the children in this study.
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Xiang-Dong Zeng was the patients’ attending physician, collected data, and contributed to the drafting of the manuscript; Wen-Guang Hu was responsible for the revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors issued final approval of the version to be submitted.
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Informed consent was obtained from the parents or legal guardian of each child. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Central Hospital.
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Zeng, XD., Hu, WG. Spontaneous remission of infantile spasms following rotavirus gastroenteritis. Neurol Sci 42, 253–257 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-020-04564-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-020-04564-6