Complex neurocognitive skills, typically acquired later in development, are the most delayed skills in youth with SCN8A?related epilepsy, according to results published in Epilepsia.
Researchers analyzed 91 patients with SCN8A-related epilepsy. Analyses were conducted to identify correlations between age at seizure onset and neurodevelopmental growth. Parents and guardians provided information pertaining to their child’s medications, seizure history, comorbidities, and developmental skills based on Denver II items. Twenty-five skills were chosen, six to seven from each category (fine motor, gross motor, social motor, and language).
Researchers carried out a retrospective analysis of data from an online SCN8A community registry and used the canonical transcript to map all genetic variants collected. Spearman rank tests were used to evaluate pairwise relationships between certain seizure characteristic variables and development score.
A limitations of this study included the potential for recall error in questionnaires completed by parents and guardians. Further, cohort included was not large enough to produce statistically significant tests and prevented further stratification based on subphenotypes or mutational type.
Researchers concluded that variants of uncertain significance should be taken into consideration when evaluating children with SCN8A-related epilepsy. Researchers believe these findings provide “a clinical context at initial presentation that may be prognostic for developmental outcome.”