Serum prolactin levels in repetitive temporal epileptic seizures

A. Siniscalchi 1, L. Gallelli 2, N.B. Mercuri 3, G. De Sarro 2

1 Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Division, “Annunziata” Hospital, Cosenza (Italy) 2 Chair of Pharmacology, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Magna Grecia of Catanzaro, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacovigilance Unit, Mater Domini University Hospital, Catanzaro (Italy) 3 IRCCS-S. Lucia and Department of Neurology, University “Tor Vergata”, Rome (Italy)

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• Neurology

The primary aim of this work was: to evaluate the time course of serum prolactin (PRL) increase following repetitive seizures in epileptic patients with (Group II) and without (Group I) temporal ischemia.
Epileptic patients were examined after 2 or 3 epileptic seizures in wakefulness with seizure-free intervals of 4 hours. Serum PRL levels was assessed within 3 hours of the last epileptic seizure and up to 48 hours after.
The increase of serum PRL attained within baseline levels after 6 h in Group I and after 12 h in Group II. A longer increase of serum PRL levels were observed in Group II patients respect to Group I (p < 0.01).
In conclusion, this different long time attenuation of serum PRL following repetitive temporal seizures with and without damage of temporal structure, may be useful in order to better analyse the synaptic transmission involved in the pathways interconnect limbic areas.

Corresponding Author: Luca Gallelli, MD; e-mail: luca_gallelli@hotmail.com

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