Behavioral characterization of pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures in the marmoset

Seizures triggered by pentylenetetrazol in marmosets made chronically epileptic with pilocarpine show greater refractoriness to treatment

“…A similar assessment was also performed for ictal or pre-ictal behaviors, such as frequency of tongue and mouth automatisms, mouth cleaning and head shakes, as well as repetitive orofacial movements, and intense salivation (the latter being also a likely consequence of peripheral cholinergic activation by pilocarpine). At last, the behavioral manifestation of seizures was evaluated for six hours after PTZ injection and seizures were characterized according to seizure severity as adapted from the Racine scale (Bachiega et al, 2008). In this context, type III and IV/V seizures are presented as partial and generalized events, respectively.…”

“…For the first and fifth drug testing sessions the compound was invariably saline, whereas phenobarbital (PB, 40 mg/kg), carbamazepine (CBZ, 120 mg/kg) and valproic acid (VPA, 400 mg/kg) were randomly sorted in the remaining sessions. The dosage for PTZ, PB and CBZ administration were previously defined for the current experiments (Bachiega et al, 2008), whereas the dose of VPA was based on previous experience with rat (Blanco et al, 2009). The time interval between each AED injection and PTZ administration reflected differences in pharmacokinetics of each different AED: 20 min for CBZ and 30 min for VPA (Lemos and Cavalheiro, 1995;Patsalos, 2005), PB and saline.…”

Favorable modulation in neurotransmitters: Effects of chronic anterior thalamic nuclei stimulation observed in epileptic monkeys

“…The monkeys awoke within 2 h after KA or saline injection and were monitored for behavioral seizures by continuous video recordings. The assessment of seizure activity was based on the Racine scale as follows: Stage 0, no detectable motor manifestation; Stage I, facial automatisms, including salivation, "mouth cleaning-like" behavior, and tongue automatisms; Stage II, facial movements, head clonus, and head shakes; Stage III, forelimb clonus; Stage IV, bilateral forelimb clonus, rearing, arched body posture, straub tail; Stage V, generalized clonic seizures and postural impairment (Bachiega et al, 2008;Racine, 1972). The number of partial seizures (PSs, Stage I-III) and generalized clonic seizures (GSs, Stage IV and V) were counted.…”

Modeling epileptogenesis and temporal lobe epilepsy in a non-human primate

“…During the chronic follow up we evaluated the rate and the electrographic pattern of SRS. The pro-convulsive behavior after pilocarpine administration was evaluated according to the modified Racine scale from I to V described previously (Bachiega et al, 2008;Racine et al, 1972) as follows:…”

“…We observed that pilocarpine was able to evoke a number of different convulsive behavior prior the SE. All 30 animals injected with pilocarpine had at least 2 episodes of convulsive behavior stages I-IV (Bachiega et al, 2008;Racine et al, 1972) progressively. The beginning of SE was characterized by convulsive behavior stage IV.…”