Current Literature T-Channel Defects in Patients with Childhood Absence Epilepsy.

Chen Y, Lu J, Pan H, Zhang Y, Wu H, Xu K, Liu X, Jiang Y, Bao X, Yao Z, Ding K, Lo WH, Qiang B, Chan P, Shen Y, Wu X Ann Neurol 2003;54:239–243 Direct sequencing of exons 3 to 35 and the exon–intron boundaries of the CACNA1H gene was conducted in 118 childhood absence epilepsy patients of Han ethnicity recruited from North China. Sixty-eight variations have been detected in the CACNA1H gene, and among the variations identified, 12 were missense mutations and found only in 14 of the 118 patients in a heterozygous state, but not in any of 230 unrelated controls. The identified missense mutations occurred in the highly conserved residues of the T-type calcium channel gene. Our results suggest that CACNA1H might be an important susceptibility gene involved in the pathogenesis of childhood absence epilepsy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]