Inflammation & stimulation

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders. About one third of the patients respond insufficiently to medication. Insight in the origin of epilepsy can contribute to the development of new treatments. Recent studies in test animals show that an inflammation in the brains is involved in the origin of epilepsy. Therefore, in this research various inflammation factors in brain tissue of patients and in an animal model for epilepsy were measured. This showed that none of the measured inflammation factors were raised. Moreover, in children with epilepsy was investigated whether the treatment in which the nervus vagus nerve is stimulated can change the level of inflammation factors in the blood. It turned out that nervus vagus stimulation does not change the inflammation level, but that on the basis of the level of some inflammation factors the effect could indeed be predicted. This finding can contribute to the improvement of the treatment method