Laboratory of Epileptology

Galina Odintsova, MD, PhD 
Head of Laboratory, Senior Researcher
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History

For more than 90 years, the specialists of the Polenov Neurosurgical Institute have been elaborating various aspects of treatment for epilepsy. In 2019, the Research Laboratory of Epileptology was separated from the Research Laboratory of Clinical Neurophysiology and Epileptology and became an independent unit.

Today, the Laboratory of Epileptology is the backbone unit of the Competence Centre for Epilepsy Surgery established in 2020.

Major objective

Optimization of surgical treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy and further neurological follow-up.

Research areas

• Neurobiology of the epileptic system: structural and functional formation, pathomorphosis, risks of remodeling in disintegration.
• Study of the demographic, clinical, social characteristics of patients with epilepsy and development of recommendations for improving their quality of life and social adaptation.
• Study of prognostic clinical, pathomorphological, molecular genetic biomarkers as predictors of the outcomes of surgical treatment for epilepsy.
• Gender characteristics of the pathogenesis and clinical picture of epilepsy.
• Study of hormonal drug alterations in female epilepsy (features of infertility, pregnancy and preconceptional preparation in epilepsy) and the development of children born to mothers with epilepsy.

Participation in State Assignments 

State Assignment on the topic “The connection between neurophysiological and pathomorphological mechanisms of the formation of the pathological system in structural epilepsy” (2019—2021).

Grants

The laboratory team has been actively involved in grants: in the submission of applications and research supported by grants. The following grants are being carried out by our researchers:

• Methodology of an integrated approach to maintaining reproductive health in female epilepsy.
• Medical and social problems of pregnancy in epilepsy: reproductive indicators, prognosis of outcomes, management of adverse effects of antiepileptic drugs.
• Pregnancy and epilepsy: progress in research and delay in practice. Fundamental causes of contraversions.

International collaboration

The Laboratory of Epileptology participates in the European Registry of Antiepileptic Drugs and Pregnancy (EURAP).

Newly developed and implemented technologies

Methodology of an integrated approach to maintaining reproductive health in female epilepsy