Sport is important not only in normal healthy populations, but also in persons with medical illness, physical or mental disabilities. Active participation in sports is benefi cial physically and psychologically. The main concern in sports for persons with epilepsy is safety. This results in sedentary lifestyles, overprotective attitudes of caregivers and friends. Despite the benefi ts of sports, with the various reassuring studies showing non-signifi cant impact of sports in seizures frequency, physiological changes, EEG, and physical injury, people with epilepsy continue to be less active in sports. This is related to various barriers in sports include epilepsy-specifi c fear, personal barriers, social barrier. Understanding and overcoming these barriers is the key in promoting sports among people with epilepsy.

Stigma is conceptually broad and culturally variable. Understanding stigma from the conceptual theories, culturally application based on the word stigma in other languages, the definition of stigma and its synonyms, as well as the medical implications in other stigmatized disease such as AIDS, will help us to understand the complexity of stigma in epilepsy. This review investigated the meaning and types of stigma from different perspectives, leading to staging stigma into 5 levels, i.e. social identity, stereotype, prejudice, discrimination and social disability. In addition to the conventional categorization of stigma into social, felt, self-perceived or internalized stigma, new categories of stigma i.e. personal and general attitudes towards epilepsy based on a newly developed Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy (PATE) scale was introduced. Courtesy stigma was further elaborated in related to Asian culture. Based on well-established and recently developed theories, the causation and impact of epilepsy stigma was discussed in an Asian context, especially from the aspects of language and society values which are culturally specific. Integrating these theories of causation, illness and stereotype perceptions were proposed to be the mediating mechanism of stigma, which led to the development of a practical and multi-dimensional stigmatization model, aiming to guide, widen and deepen the scope of future stigma research in epilepsy. Using the established model, together with review of related studies, research priorities in epilepsy stigma research especially in Asia focusing on five aspects, i.e. expanding population studies especially on significant others, understanding stigma from personal attitude perspective, investigating the cultural and social causation of stigma, and the impacts of stigma on patients as well as the family members, were proposed.

Surveys about attitudes towards those with epilepsy have been performed since 1949, in order to understand the social stigma toward epilepsy. This review aims to demonstrate the variation in public attitudes towards epilepsy and its associated factors, with a critical review of the methodology used to examine attitudes towards epilepsy. There was marked variation of attitudes between Western and non-Western populations, and these attitudes were positively correlated with the standard of living. Besides the general public, studies were also performed within specifi c groups, particularly teachers and students. However absence of a standardized questionnaire makes direct comparison diffi cult. A few quantitative methods were developed but these were limited by cultural variations and thus lack of global acceptance. Short-term intervention studies demonstrate an improvement of attitude with knowledge. Nonetheless, the cultural and social reasons underlying the attitudes, and how this affects the life of people with epilepsy, are understudied. Therefore, surveys on attitudes should continue to be carried out, particularly in populations prone to have negative attitudes with emphasis on underlying reasons, and such progress should be monitored longitudinally. Attitudes of people such as parents, teachers, school counselors, health care professionals, and employers, which have a direct impact on people with epilepsy, should be more extensively studied.

Background: There is lack of normality data in the literature on the plantar response. Objective: To determine the variability of plantar response in normal population and factors that might contribute to the variability. Methods: We conducted a study of plantar response in healthy subjects aged 19-21 in two phases. First phase was plantar examination with hard strike. Subjects with big toe extension in the fi rst phase were re-examined with light and hard strike in the second phase. Results: 100 subjects recruited in fi rst phase, 19 subjects in second phase. Out of 600 attempts (3 attempts for each foot) with hard strike, responses of the big toe were fl exion (48.3%), extension (11.3%), no movement (39.8%); other toes were fl exion (55.0%), extension (13.0%), no movement (32.0%); ankle was dorsifl exion (30.8%), no movement (59.3%); knee were fl exion (15.7%), no movement (84.3%); hip were fl exion (15.2%), no movement (84.8%). Of those with big toe extension, signifi cantly less had persistent big toe extension with light strike. More (41%) among those with extensor big toe has withdrawal response (with fl exion of the hip and knee) as compared to those with fl exor big toe (18.5%, p<0.05). Interfoot asymmetry was seen in 27% (kappa 0.54). Plantar responses of sequential strikes were mostly consistent, with only 3.5% inter-attempt variability. Conclusion: Plantar response with extensor great toe is seen in about 10% of normal adults, less with lighter strike. Withdrawal response can be a partial explanation to the big toe extensor response in normal adults.

Strong association between HLA B*1502 and carbamazepine-induced Steven-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) was demonstrated among Han Chinese in 2004. Studies from Europe showed that the HLA B*1502 is not a universal marker for SJS/TEN, but is ethnicity specific for Asians. Reports across Asia has shown that the prevalence of HLA B*1502 is high among Han Chinese (5-15%), Malays (12-15%), and Thais (8-27%), but low among Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, and most ethnic groups in India. Other than Han Chinese, the association between HLA B*1502 and carbamazepine-induced SJS-TEN is also seen among the Thais and Malay. There is urgent need for further studies to determine the prevalence of SJS/TEN, and HLA B*1502 in the various ethnic groups in Asia, and its association with carbamazepine-induced SJS-TEN in each of these ethnic groups. In view of the significant morbidity and mortality in SJS-TEN, facilities should be developed to allow for screening of HLA B*1502 before carbamazepine is prescribed to the Hans Chinese, Malays and Thais. For those who experience no adverse cutaneous reaction after 3 months use of carbamazepine, the risk of SJS/TEN is low, and the drugs can be continued.

A 27 year-old Chinese man, involved in a motor vehicle accident, presented with rapidly progressive pseudobulbar palsy and spastic tetraplegia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed central pontine T2 hyperintensity with an unaffected outer rim, consistent with central pontine myelinolysis. There was no hyponatraemia before MRI and he was neither an alcoholic nor malnourished. Cerebral angiogram confi rmed the diagnosis of right vertebral artery dissection. Vertebral artery dissection should be considered in a case with imaging suggestive of central pontine myelinolysis.

Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis is an immune mediated condition with characteristic clinical presentation. We report the first case from Borneo, Sabah and the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in treating recalcitrant psychiatrist symptoms associated with this condition.

Faciobrachial dystonic seizures are pathognomonic of leucine-rich glioma inactivated-1 (LGi1) antibody, non-paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis. Faciobrachial dystonic seizures usually precede limbic encephalitis by about a month. It is unknown whether, if untreated, faciobrachial dystonic seizures inevitably progress to limbic encephalitis. We present an LGi1 seropositive patient with a year’s history of faciobrachial dystonic seizures, who achieved remission spontaneously without immunotherapy or antiepileptic drug treatment, and did not develop evidence of limbic encephalitis over a three-year follow-up.
Limbic Encephalitis

Background& Objective: Investigation modalities, such as MRI and CSF examination, are neither sensitive nor specific in the early phase of anti-NMDAR encephalitis. Nuclear imaging may be useful to monitor the response to treatment but limited by the availability.We aimed to determine the role of EEG as a tool for early diagnosis as well as a tool to assess disease progression and response to treatment. Methods: A total of 99 EEGsdone in 16 patients diagnosed with anti-NMDAR encephalitis throughout the course of illness, were reviewed retrospectively. The EEG changes were correlated with the clinical presentations and response to treatment. Sixteen EEGs of patients with schizophrenia and mood disorder, and 10 EEGs of patients with infective encephalitis were included as control. Results: EEGs performed during the psychiatric and cognitive dysfunctionphase in patient with anti-NMDAR encephalitis, showed diffuse background slowing in the delta-theta range in all the patients. Serial EEGs showed that the dominant background frequency improved with improvement in cognitive status. Nine patients had complete recovery with normalisation of the EEG abnormalities. Eight patients had their typical clinical seizure recorded during EEG monitoring, but only 2 (25.0%) with EEG correlation. Ten patients had status epilepticus (62.5%), 5 had EEG recorded during their status epilepticus, of which only one with EEG correlation (20.0%). Eleven patients had asymmetric background (68.8%), but only 1 has correlation with focal changes in the MRI brain (9.1%). Even though the EEGs of patients with infective encephalitis also showed background slowing, their CSF analysis was supportive of an infective cause. EEGs of patients with established psychiatric disorder were within normal limits. Conclusion: EEG abnormality has a good correlation with the degree of psychiatric and cognitive dysfunction in patient with anti-NMDAR encephalitis, and is useful in early diagnosis, monitoring the progress and the response to treatment. However, it has poor correlation with clinical seizures.
Electroencephalography

Introduction: None of the identified studies employed quantitative scales correlating the knowledge and attitudes toward epilepsy. Method: This study aimed to study the relationship between the knowledge and attitudes toward epilepsy, using the Epilepsy Knowledge Questionnaire (EKQ) and the Public Attitudes Toward Epilepsy (PATE) scale. Results: A total of 279 publics with a mean age of 36.6±14.7 years (ranged from 15-77 years), 50.8% female with majority (63.0%) Chinese, and 49.5% with tertiary education level, were recruited. The mean score of epilepsy knowledge questionnaire (EKQ) was 21.05±3.92 (95% CI: 20.57-21.48). Higher score in EKQ was associated with higher education level (p<0.01). The total score in the EKQ correlated negatively with the mean scores in the PATE scale, as well as the mean scores in both the personal domain and general domains in the PATE scale (p<0.05). Only 8 out of 34 items in EKQ were associated significantly with the mean scores in the personal domain, and 4 other items were with the general domain of the PATE scale. Conclusion: This study showed that although the overall knowledge in epilepsy is significantly associated with better attitudes toward epilepsy, only certain aspects of knowledge in the scale contributed to this association.