Seizures and reproductive ills linked. (Biomedicine).Women with epilepsy are more likely to have reproductive disorders than are other women. Two new studies shed light on the biology behind this link. The temporal lobes--the parts of the brain just behind the temples--communicate with other areas of the brain that regulate sex hormones. So, Andrew H. Herzog of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Both an international and regional referral center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts is a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital (founded in 1916) and in Boston recruited 36 women whose seizures were triggered by abnormal bursts of activity in their temporal lobes. He and his colleagues monitored the electrical signals in the women's brains for 8 straight hours and took blood samples every 10 minutes. During the study, none of the women had a clinically detectable seizure, but most had brief, abnormal discharges of electrical activity in their brain, Herzog reported in October at a meeting of the Epilepsy Foundation in Las Vegas. After such a burst, the blood concentration of the reproductive hormone prolactin prolactin /pro·lac·tin/ (-lak´tin) a hormone of the anterior pituitary that stimulates and sustains lactation in postpartum mammals, and shows luteotropic activity in certain mammals. pro·lac·tin n. spiked threefold within 10 minutes and then dropped below its starting point. The electrical bursts also disrupted the brain's cyclic release of luteinizing hormone lu·te·in·iz·ing hormone n. Abbr. LH A hormone produced by the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland that stimulates ovulation and the development of the corpus luteum in the female and the production of testosterone by the interstitial , or LH, which stimulates the ovaries Ovaries The female sex organs that make eggs and female hormones. Mentioned in: Choriocarcinoma ovaries (ō´v to make estrogen and progesterone progesterone (prōjĕs`tərōn'), female sex hormone that induces secretory changes in the lining of the uterus essential for successful implantation of a fertilized egg. . In another study reported at the meeting, researchers linked abnormal pulses of LH with an increased risk of polycystic ovary syndrome Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Definition Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a condition characterized by the accumulation of numerous cysts (fluid-filled sacs) on the ovaries associated with high male hormone levels, chronic anovulation (absent ovulation), , a disease characterized by abnormal ovulation ovulation /ovu·la·tion/ (ov?u-la´shun) the discharge of a secondary oocyte from a graafian follicle.ov´ulatory o·vu·la·tion n. The discharge of an ovum from the ovary. , the presence of multiple unreleased eggs in ovaries, and infertility. Martha J. Morrell of Columbia University followed 100 women--75 with epilepsy and 25 without--by measuring LH in their blood and urine samples for three consecutive menstrual cycles. During one of each woman's menstrual cycles, physicians took blood samples every 10 minutes for 8 hours. Women with epilepsy were more likely to have abnormal patterns of LH release, Morrell found. Among women with normal patterns of LH release, about 27 percent showed ultrasound evidence of multiple unreleased eggs. In contrast, 57 percent of women with abnormal LH pulses showed this sign of polycystic ovary syndrome. --D. C. |
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