Abstracts

Rationale: With an ageing population and improved stroke care, poststrokeepilepsy is likely to increase in prevalence. The potential for intervention aimed at epileptogenesis makes the condition suitable for experimental studies and calls for robust animal models. Suitable models should have sufficiently high risk of epilepsy while minimizing impact on animal welfare.Methods: Based on a recent report of mice having a more rapid epileptogenesis than rats in the kainic acid model of temporal love epilepsy, I attempted to model poststroke epilepsy in the mouse by applying clinical parameters known to increase the risk of epilepsy in humans. Intracerebral hemorhage was modelled by stereotactic injection of autologous blood from the tail vein into the visual cortex. EEG-electrodes were mounted in the same session. The surgery resulted in no detectable clinical deficit. Following three weeks of recovery, video-EEG was recorded for one week.Results: Four out of twelve mice displayed low-grade seizures (epileptiform discharges paralleled by behavioural arrest), five mice did not develop epilepsy and three mice were unclassifiable due to EEG artefacts.Conclusions: The result parallels the risk of epilepsy in humans following haemorrhagic stroke. Hopefully, with some improvement this straightforward model might prove useful as a platform for studies on epileptogenesis in poststroke epilepsy.