Farah Ashrafzadeh; Mehran Beiraghi Toosi; Mohammad Hasan Mohammadi
Abstract
Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a syndrome of social communication deficits and repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. While the impairments associated with ASD tend to deteriorate from childhood into adulthood, it is of critical importance that the syndrome is diagnosed at an ...
Read More
Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a syndrome of social communication deficits and repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. While the impairments associated with ASD tend to deteriorate from childhood into adulthood, it is of critical importance that the syndrome is diagnosed at an early age. One means of facilitating this is through understanding how the brain of people with ASD develops from early childhood. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the method of choice for in vivo and non-invasive investigations of the morphology of the human brain, especially when the subjects are children. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of existing structural MRI studies that have investigated brain size in ASD children of up to 5 years old. Methods: In this study, we systematically reviewed published papers that describe research studies in which the brain size of ASD children has been examined. PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for all relevant original articles that described the use of MRI techniques to study ASD patients who were between 1 and 5 years old. To be included in the review, all studies needed to be cohort and case series that involved at least 10 patients. No time limitations were placed on the searched articles within the inclusion criteria. The exclusion criteria were non-English articles, case reports, and articles that described research involving subjects that were not within the qualifying age range of 1-5 years old.Result: After an initial screening process through which the title, abstracts, and full text of the articles were reviewed to confirm they met the inclusion criteria, a total of 10 relevant articles were studied in depth. All studies found that children with ASD who were within the selected age range had a larger brain size than children without ASD.Discussion: The findings of recent studies indicate that the vast majority of ASD patients exhibit an enlarged brain; however, the extent of the enlargement varies from study to study. As such, further studies are required to develop an understanding of the areas of the brain in which enlargement manifests in children with ASD before the age of five and to verify the significance of the prognostic value of MRI as a non-invasive diagnostic technique that can be employed to detect ASD in young children.Conclusion: Based on the extracted data, brain size was related to the emergence and presence of autism in children who were below school age. The use of MRI represents a functional and non-invasive method of confirming ASD in children who have an initial ASD diagnosis.
Abolfazl Mahmoudzadeh; Yasamin Davoudi; Hossein Haghir; Maryam Salehi; Farah Ashrafzadeh; Behzad Aminzadeh; Sara Mehrnoosh; Mohammadreza Mehrnoosh
Abstract
Many children with hippocampal sclerosis underwent surgery for treatment. Early childhood convulsion occurs in 2 to 4% of population and its prognosis is good in majority of cases. It seems that hippocampal anomalies are common in patients with neocortical epilepsies. The theory of hippocampal sclerosis ...
Read More
Many children with hippocampal sclerosis underwent surgery for treatment. Early childhood convulsion occurs in 2 to 4% of population and its prognosis is good in majority of cases. It seems that hippocampal anomalies are common in patients with neocortical epilepsies. The theory of hippocampal sclerosis association with temporal lobe epilepsy has been proposed 100 years ago. Recent studies demonstrated that there was a correlation between memory impairments and prolonged febrile convulsion (PFC), which might be a result of hippocampal injury. Transient hippocampus swelling might happen in complicated early childhood epilepsy or status epilepticus and result in hippocampal sclerosis.
Seyed Ebrahim Mansoorinejad; Farah Ashrafzadeh; Javad Akhondian; Mehran Beiraghi Toosi
Abstract
Epilepsy is described as a heterogeneous clinical syndrome results from various cerebral destructions. It is categorized to partial and generalized forms. Degree of neural system impairment and affected area determine the severity and pattern of symptoms. Patients might experience sensory, motor, or ...
Read More
Epilepsy is described as a heterogeneous clinical syndrome results from various cerebral destructions. It is categorized to partial and generalized forms. Degree of neural system impairment and affected area determine the severity and pattern of symptoms. Patients might experience sensory, motor, or both signs and symptoms. About 60% of epileptic patients suffer from partial type. It is estimated that up to 30% of epilepsy cases would not be controlled adequately despite sufficient and proper management. Anacyclus pyrethrum, Citrus aurantium var. amara, Paeonia officinalis, Rosa Damascena and Nigella Sativa are some of herbal drugs which have antiepileptic effect. Natural agents are valuable sources to treat chronic diseases and a huge number of world`s population believe herbs are effective and safe for daily primary health care needs. There is not enough evidence about their efficacy and safety obtained from randomized control trials.