Long-term prognosis of patients with West syndrome in Japan: medical aspects

In this study, West syndrome prognosis over 20 years was described. All inf ormation was obtained from the primary caregivers of patients with West syn drome thorough questionnaires. Of the 259 respondents, 117 patients born be tween 1960 and 1980 were analyzed. At the age of 20 years two patients were deceased, of the surviving patients, 40% of patients had seizures daily or weekly and 25.2% had been seizure-free for at least 3 years. There was sig nificant difference in the seizure persistence value between West syndrome etiologies but not between the bir-th cohorts; of those born in the 1960s a nd 1970s. Compared with severe seizure persistence, which was the duration of the existing daily or weekly seizures at each age, there were no signifi cant difference between birth cohorts and West syndrome etiologies. (C) 200 1 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.