Introduction: Epilepsy is a chronic disease that affects the quality of life (QoL) of adolescent patients. The objective of the study was to determine the QoL related to health in adolescent patients with epilepsy treated at the Federico Gómez Children's Hospital of Mexico using the QoL impact in epilepsy adolescents (QOLIE-AD-48) scale application. Materials and methods: An observational, descriptive, and transversal study was carried out. Adolescent patients with a diagnosis of epilepsy and specific characteristics obtained by non-random convenience were evaluated. A questionnaire with socio-demographic data and the QOLIE-AD-48 questionnaire were applied. Results: We obtained 35 participants, 51.5% male, with an average age of 14.2 years ± 1.4 (standard deviation), the average duration of 4.7 years. Regarding schooling, 13% of participants have failed a grade level. About 11.4% do not attend school. Epileptic seizures were classified as focal (71.4%) and generalized (28.6%). The largest number of cases was in monotherapy in 68.6%, and the most common drugs are valproic acid (39.4%) and levetiracetam (27.3%). The QOLIE-AD-48 score was 65.20. The most affected domains, according to gender were: attitude toward epilepsy and physical functioning, for female and male, respectively. Overall, the lowest scores are attitudes toward epilepsy and health perception. Conclusions: Despite adequate control of seizures, the QoL related to the health of adolescents with epilepsy is regular. This suggests that not only the crisis and the number of them influence the external environment of adolescents but also that other factors can be included in the overall well-being.
Background: Opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome (OMS) is an immune-mediated disorder that affects the central nervous system. It is recognized as a paraneoplastic syndrome highly associated with neuroblastic tumors. In Mexico, accurate epidemiological data are lacking and there are no well-structured protocols aimed at standardizing a treatment regimen in patients with OMS. Aim: This study aims to describe the clinical features, etiological factors, and treatment related to OMS in Mexican children. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study was performed over a 10-year period (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016), using the database of the "Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez". The patients were divided into two groups (tumor vs. no tumor) to determine if there were significant demographic differences between the subgroups. The demographic variables were compared between groups using the Student's t-test. Results: Eleven patients were identified. The median age at the onset of the first clinical manifestation was 23 ± 14 months and the median age at diagnosis was 26 ± 15 months. The time delay between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis was approximately 3 months. Conclusion: In Mexico, there is a paucity of experience regarding the clinical presentation of OMS, and due to the infrequency of this condition, it is rarely diagnosed in our population since most pediatricians are unaware of the existence of the syndrome. The findings of this paper are consistent with the previous studies in terms of a closely equal sex ratio, predominance of Stage I tumors, a greater number of female patients with a paraneoplastic etiology, high relapse rates, and frequent neuropsychiatric morbidity.
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