Boston-Based Telemedicine Program Helping Diagnose Subtle Seizures In Children

BOSTON (CBS) – About three in 1,000 children suffer from seizures, but some seizures can be subtle and hard to identify. Now doctors at Boston Medical Center have developed a program which allows kids with seizures to be diagnosed and treated in a timely fashion. Sophia Vasta was a completely healthy baby until one morning her mother, Ashley, noticed her daughter making some unusual movements. “It was just a repetitive twitching,” Ashley said. “It was like her shoulder was trying to come to her leg, almost like a half of a crunch.” Sophia had a routine doctor’s appointment that day so Ashley asked her pediatrician about it. “I could tell it was a little bit of a red flag when I mentioned it,” she recalled. Concerned she might be having seizures, the pediatrician gave Ashley an online questionnaire. Based on the responses, Sophia was immediately referred to Dr. Laurie Douglass, a pediatric neurologist at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Douglass says most people can recognize a typical seizure, but many can be much more subtle than that. “It could be as simple as a staring spell,” said Dr. Douglass. “It could be a funny feeling. It could be some shaking or stiffening in just a part of the body. It could be an altered awareness, like a confusion state.” That means a significant number of kids may go undiagnosed, so Dr. Douglass and colleagues at BMC launched the Telehealth Epilepsy Care Collaborative, or TECC, program at 12 BMC-affiliated health cente...
Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Boston News Health Syndicated Local Boston Medical Center Epilepsy Seizures Source Type: news