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Contact the study team using the details below to take part. If there are no contact details below please ask your doctor in the first instance.
Prof
Tony
Marson
a.g.marson@liverpool.ac.uk
Josie
Mayer
j.mayer2@liverpool.ac.uk
Episodic and paroxysmal disorders
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Adults who develop seizures and epilepsy later in life are at an increased risk of stroke and heart attacks. At present, blood vessel health is not considered in routine epilepsy care and there is no guidance for healthcare providers regarding this. Presenting with a seizure later in life could be an important time point to improve vessel health for prevention of future stroke and heart attacks.
This study is designed to investigate the blood vessel health in the brain and the body of people who develop seizures and epilepsy later in life.
The study consists of three parts.
Part 1- A comparison of the brain and blood vessel health in patients aged 50-75 years with seizures or epilepsy without obvious cause (unprovoked) to people who have high blood pressure and people who are healthy. Blood tests will be performed that identify risk factors such as diabetes and high cholesterol; blood pressure will be measured; the stiffness of blood vessels checked and the brain blood vessels will be assessed using ultrasound.
Part 2- An assessment of blood vessel health over time by repeating the tests at 6 and 12 months. Patients with unprovoked seizures and epilepsy will be compared again to those with high blood pressure.
Part 3- A cohort of patients with unprovoked seizures and epilepsy will be established to review their MRI Brain scans, blood vessel health risk factors and health 12 months after diagnosis.
This study will provide insight into blood vessel health of this group of patients, inform our understanding of the relationship between blood vessel health and seizures, and may help identify those patients at risk of future stroke and heart attack.
Start dates may differ between countries and research sites. The research team are responsible for keeping the information up-to-date.
The recruitment start and end dates are as follows:
Observational type: Case-controlled study;
You can take part if:
You may not be able to take part if:
Exclusion Criteria - clinically overt stroke - structural intracranial pathology (e.g. intracranial mass lesion, traumatic brain injury, evidence of cortical stroke) - history of cranial neurosurgery - non-epileptic seizure - provoked or acute symptomatic seizure - known neurodegenerative disease (e.g. Alzheimer’s) - known neuroinflammatory disease (e.g. Multiple sclerosis, sarcoidosis) - inability to understand written or spoken English Additional exclusion criteria for Part 1 & 2 only: - known > 50% carotid artery stenosis - atrial fibrillation - severe respiratory disease (Moderate, severe or very severe COPD as defined by the GOLD criteria, Asthma with 1 or more clinical exacerbations within the past year or history or hospitalisation with Asthma, other chronic respiratory disease requiring oxygen, history of pneumothorax) - Significant mobility issues e.g. requiring hoist transfer/ inability to lie supine/ inability to sit and stand without assistance of one person
Below are the locations for where you can take part in the trial. Please note that not all sites may be open.
The study is sponsored by University of Liverpool and funded by ASSOCIATION OF BRITISH NEUROLOGISTS .
Your feedback is important to us. It will help us improve the quality of the study information on this site. Please answer both questions.
Read full details
for Trial ID: CPMS 56576
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