Predictors of outcome in newly diagnosed epilepsy: Clinical, EEG and MRI

Many clinical features in epilepsy have been assessed for their association with long-term epilepsy outcome. These factors include gender, age of seizure onset, type and duration of epilepsy, IQ, neurological examination fi nding, seizure frequency, duration between epilepsy onset and tre atmentinitiation, duration between treatment initiation and response, failure vs. response to the fi rst antiepileptic drug (AED), and number of AED tried or needed for seizure control. The most consistent factor associated with long-term epilepsy outcome is the ease of controlling seizures. This factor could be in terms of how soon seizures are controlled by AED, how frequent seizures recur despite treatment initiation, or how many AED had to be used to control seizures. Other than the EEG patterns of catastrophic epilepsies, EEG fi ndings in general have a limited role in predicting epilepsy treatment outcome. Clinical predictors are presently needed to guide research studies for discovering reliable laboratorybased biomarkers. Moreover, currently known clinical, EEG and MRI predictors of epilepsy outcome should be used to counsel patients and their families about the prognosis and the appropriate treatment options of their epilepsy.