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Utilizing Infantile Spasm Seizure Activity as a Baseline Vital in the Setting of Acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia

The objective of this case report is to describe and document a decrease in seizure activity in a 16-year-old female with a past medical history of Aicardi syndrome (AS) and infantile spasms (IS) while being treated for acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia with pleural effusion. This patient prese...

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Autores principales: Thompson, Landon R, Virgilio, Richard, Flowers, David L
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10544227/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37790004
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.46269
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author Thompson, Landon R
Virgilio, Richard
Flowers, David L
author_facet Thompson, Landon R
Virgilio, Richard
Flowers, David L
author_sort Thompson, Landon R
collection PubMed
description The objective of this case report is to describe and document a decrease in seizure activity in a 16-year-old female with a past medical history of Aicardi syndrome (AS) and infantile spasms (IS) while being treated for acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia with pleural effusion. This patient presented to the pediatric emergency department with a chief complaint of fever, tachycardia, increased nasal secretions, and oxygen requirement at home. She was admitted to the general pediatric medical floor for treatment of an adenovirus infection due to her having a complex medical history and her being medically unstable. On hospital admission day 1, she developed post-viral P. aeruginosa pneumonia. She subsequently had three days of complete clinical seizure cessation without changing her anti-epileptic medications. It was not until the symptomatology related to her pneumonia improved that her seizure activity returned to its baseline frequency. The treating team discovered that the decrease in her frequency of seizure activity related to periods of increased physiologic stress was not new. Her mother reported that she has used the relationship between her daughter’s seizures and any acute illness to gauge how her daughter was “feeling” medically. Three weeks prior to this hospital admission, her mother reported that her daughter’s seizures ceased for two days during a period in which it was determined that the patient was having renal colic and passed a renal stone. This phenomenon, the decrease in the frequency of seizure activity related to periods of increased physiologic stress, could help primary caretakers assess when significant, new comorbid conditions are present and could aid in the primary assessment of physical health in a particular patient population who are unable to verbalize their current medical status. Utilizing seizure activity as an at-home vital sign could help caretakers recognize when their patient is under an elevated physiologic stress condition. Recognizing the relationship between seizure frequency and acute illness could also help diagnostically, as ISs are difficult to both diagnose and manage. Also, future research on this possible association could explore more understanding of IS and pathophysiology of such phenomenon.
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spelling pubmed-105442272023-10-03 Utilizing Infantile Spasm Seizure Activity as a Baseline Vital in the Setting of Acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia Thompson, Landon R Virgilio, Richard Flowers, David L Cureus Endocrinology/Diabetes/Metabolism The objective of this case report is to describe and document a decrease in seizure activity in a 16-year-old female with a past medical history of Aicardi syndrome (AS) and infantile spasms (IS) while being treated for acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia with pleural effusion. This patient presented to the pediatric emergency department with a chief complaint of fever, tachycardia, increased nasal secretions, and oxygen requirement at home. She was admitted to the general pediatric medical floor for treatment of an adenovirus infection due to her having a complex medical history and her being medically unstable. On hospital admission day 1, she developed post-viral P. aeruginosa pneumonia. She subsequently had three days of complete clinical seizure cessation without changing her anti-epileptic medications. It was not until the symptomatology related to her pneumonia improved that her seizure activity returned to its baseline frequency. The treating team discovered that the decrease in her frequency of seizure activity related to periods of increased physiologic stress was not new. Her mother reported that she has used the relationship between her daughter’s seizures and any acute illness to gauge how her daughter was “feeling” medically. Three weeks prior to this hospital admission, her mother reported that her daughter’s seizures ceased for two days during a period in which it was determined that the patient was having renal colic and passed a renal stone. This phenomenon, the decrease in the frequency of seizure activity related to periods of increased physiologic stress, could help primary caretakers assess when significant, new comorbid conditions are present and could aid in the primary assessment of physical health in a particular patient population who are unable to verbalize their current medical status. Utilizing seizure activity as an at-home vital sign could help caretakers recognize when their patient is under an elevated physiologic stress condition. Recognizing the relationship between seizure frequency and acute illness could also help diagnostically, as ISs are difficult to both diagnose and manage. Also, future research on this possible association could explore more understanding of IS and pathophysiology of such phenomenon. Cureus 2023-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC10544227/ /pubmed/37790004 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.46269 Text en Copyright © 2023, Thompson et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Endocrinology/Diabetes/Metabolism
Thompson, Landon R
Virgilio, Richard
Flowers, David L
Utilizing Infantile Spasm Seizure Activity as a Baseline Vital in the Setting of Acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia
title Utilizing Infantile Spasm Seizure Activity as a Baseline Vital in the Setting of Acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia
title_full Utilizing Infantile Spasm Seizure Activity as a Baseline Vital in the Setting of Acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia
title_fullStr Utilizing Infantile Spasm Seizure Activity as a Baseline Vital in the Setting of Acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia
title_full_unstemmed Utilizing Infantile Spasm Seizure Activity as a Baseline Vital in the Setting of Acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia
title_short Utilizing Infantile Spasm Seizure Activity as a Baseline Vital in the Setting of Acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pneumonia
title_sort utilizing infantile spasm seizure activity as a baseline vital in the setting of acute pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia
topic Endocrinology/Diabetes/Metabolism
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10544227/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37790004
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.46269
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