Editor's Desk: Highlights

I am extremely delighted to present the second issue of International Journal of Epilepsy (IJEP). I would like to express my gratitude to Thieme Publications for their hard work and dedication in compiling this current issue. Some of the very interesting and time-relevant research works are featured in this issue. IJEP is now in its second volume with Thieme Publications. This current issue contains five original research articles, one extensive review article, three case reports, one technical note, one letter to the editor, and forty-seven conference abstracts.

This issue features one extensive review by Patil et al on studying continuous electroencephalography monitoring in intensive care unit. One of the five interesting original research works by Kamel et al attempted to find the relationship between heat shock protein 70 (HsP70) expression and neuronal damage after seizure, where they found a significantly higher level of HsP70 in children with epileptic and febrile seizures than in normal healthy children, suggesting its beneficial role in confirming the diagnosis of epilepsy.

Another informative original article by Fabrizio Rinaldi assessed the efficacy and safety of perampanel as an add-on treatment in adult patients with refractory focal onset seizures, where it achieved meaningful clinical improvement in almost two-thirds of such patients.

With the advent of newer investigating modalities, machine learning is becoming one of the advanced techniques in the neurodiagnostic field. Such a study conducted by Balakrishnan et al demonstrated higher accuracy in detecting abnormal electrical signals in startle type epileptic seizures using machine learning technique.

We have included three noteworthy case reports. One interesting case report by Azevedo Kauppila et al deals with a case of Dravet syndrome, which is associated with severely refractory seizures. In the quest of finding possible role of serotonergic drugs in such cases, they find the possible role of trazodone as an antiepileptic drug for Dravet syndrome. Another beautiful and rare case report by Kiran et al showed the unusual coexistence of temporo-occipital polymicrogyria with choroidal fissure cyst in a case of focal onset seizures.

Besides regularly publishing articles, we are happy to inform you that we have included forty-seven recent conference abstracts presented at ECON 2019 that will provide a quick review to the readers, covering broader areas of latest developments in epilepsy. I hope it will be an interesting and helpful read for all.

I would like to thank our editorial board members, reviewers, nationally and internationally acclaimed epilepsy experts as well as the whole technical team for their constant efforts and active participation. With all your sincere association, hopefully we will try to maintain the standard of the journal and continue to serve in updating knowledge. Finally, any constructive inputs and valuable suggestions to improve the journal ahead will be highly appreciated.