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<!DOCTYPE ArticleSet PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD PubMed 2.0//EN" "http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entrez/query/static/PubMed.dtd">
<ArticleSet>
<Article>
<Journal>
<PublisherName>Science and Education Publishing</PublisherName>
<JournalTitle>American Journal of Clinical Medicine Research</JournalTitle>
<Issn>2328-403X</Issn>
<Volume>2</Volume>
<Issue>1</Issue>
<PubDate PubStatus="epublish">
<Year>2014</Year>
<Month>02</Month>
<Day>07</Day>
</PubDate>
</Journal>
<ArticleTitle>Predictors and Typical Clinical Findings of Refractory Epilepsy</ArticleTitle>
<FirstPage>26</FirstPage>
<LastPage>31</LastPage>
<Language>EN</Language>
<AuthorList>
<Author>
<FirstName>E.</FirstName>
<LastName>Viteva</LastName>
<Affiliation>Department of Neurology, University of Medicine, Plovdiv, Bulgaria</Affiliation>
</Author>

</AuthorList>
<ArticleIdList>
<ArticleId IdType="pii">AJCMR2014217</ArticleId>
<ArticleId IdType="doi">10.12691/ajcmr-2-1-7</ArticleId>
</ArticleIdList>
<History>
<PubDate PubStatus="received">
<Year>2014</Year>
<Month>01</Month>
<Day>14</Day>
</PubDate>
<PubDate PubStatus="revised">
<Year>2014</Year>
<Month>01</Month>
<Day>22</Day>
</PubDate>
<PubDate PubStatus="accepted">
<Year>2014</Year>
<Month>02</Month>
<Day>07</Day>
</PubDate>
</History>
<Abstract>Purpose: Our purpose was to identify the predictors of refractory epilepsy (RE) and the typical clinical findings in Bulgarian patients with RE. Patients and Methods: We studied 70 adult patients with refractory epilepsy and 70 patients with pharmaco sensitive epilepsy. The Liverpool Seizure Severity Scale was completed by 84.29% of the patients with RE. Results: The typical clinical findings and significant predictors of RE on univariate analysis were: high initial seizure frequency (OR = 2.45), heredity for epilepsy (OR = 8.90), febrile seizures (OR = 4.50), partial epilepsy (OR = 5.98), low or lacking seizure reduction with the first AED (OR = 44.0), clusters of seizures and/or epileptic status in the disease course (OR = 16.5), childhood onset (OR = 8.0), great number of ineffective antiepileptic drugs (AED) - OR = 232.88, poly therapy (OR = 61.0). On multivariate analysis significant predictors of RE were poly therapy (B = 4.86), childhood onset (B = 2.79), and great number (&gt; 4) of ineffective AED (B = 5.44). Frequent clinical findings were: moderate seizure severity, high seizure frequency despite the prescribed treatment, polymorphic seizures. Conclusion: The most significant predictors of RE are: great number of ineffective AED, treatment with poly therapy, and early disease onset. This conclusion may be useful for a timely identification of patients with epilepsy who are likely to be refractory to medical therapy.</Abstract>
</Article>
</ArticleSet>
