Myth: No medical tests can determine if a child will develop epilepsy in the future.
Truth: This is false.
Epilepsy is a nervous system disorder that is seen among many children and young teens. Although epilepsy can be treated with medications, young children with epilepsy are more likely to have a neuro-developmental disorder that creates epilepsy. As such, a recently published study has shown a genetic test that can prescreen young children for epilepsy to ensure that their physicians can decide on the most effective treatments for these individuals to promote healthy brain development.
The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, illustrates that there are several types of genetic tests that can determine if an individual will develop epilepsy. These include karyotyping, microarrays, epileptic gene panels, and whole genome sequencing. Of these four genetic tests, whole genome sequencing seems to be the most promising in determining epilepsy. Specifically, whole genome sequencing provided an epileptic diagnosis 33% of the time.
To read more about genetic testing and epilepsy diagnosis, click the link here.
Reference
- Berg AT, Coryell J, Saneto RP, et al. Early-life epilepsies and the emerging role of genetic testing. JAMA Pediatr. 2017;171(9):863-871. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2017.1743
