Main description:

This book provides comprehensive information, both for clinicians and scientists, on the basic mechanisms, clinical features, and therapeutic approaches to epilepsy as an inflammatory disease. Inflammation has been for many years considered as an etiologic player (and a therapeutic target) for a specific group of epilepsies. However, it turns out that this concept underestimated the impact of inflammation in seizure disorders. Many accepted therapies for non-inflammatory epilepsies act in part as an inflammatory drug. The CNS actively responds to acute immune challenges by altering body temperature, stimulating the HPA axis, as well as up- and down-regulating specific sympathetic pathways.

Contents:

Pro and Anti-Inflammatory Neurovascular Processes in Epilepsy: A Fragile and Dynamic Equilibrium.- Emerging Molecular Mechanisms of Neuroinflammation in Seizure Disorders.- Glial Mechanisms of Inflammation during Seizures.- Perivascular Inflammation and Extracellular Matrix Alterations in Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction and Epilepsy.- Blood T cells and Cytokine Levels during Interictal-Ictal Transitions.- Autoantibodies, Encephalopathies and Epilepsy.- Tau Protein in Drug-Resistant Epilepsy and Cognitive Decline.- Ketogenic Diet, Inflammation and Epilepsy.- Role of Regulatory T cells in Epilepsy.- Inflammation at the Neurovascular Unit in Post-Traumatic Epilepsy.