Commentary Open Access
Commentary: Does First-Line Treatment Impact Outcomes in Trisomy 21-Associated Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome?
Muzna AlFarsi1, Anita N. Datta1,*
- 1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neurology, BC Children’s Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Corresponding Author
Anita Datta, anita.datta@cw.bc.ca
Received Date: July 27, 2026
Accepted Date: August 25, 2026
AlFarsi M, Datta AN. Commentary: Does First-Line Treatment Impact Outcomes in Trisomy 21-Associated Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome? J Exp Neurol. 2026;7(3):135–140.
Copyright: © 2026 AlFarsi M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords
Infantile spasms, Epileptic spasms, Down syndrome, Trisomy 21, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Adrenocorticotropic hormone, Prednisolone, Vigabatrin
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Commentary: Does First-Line Treatment Impact Outcomes in Trisomy 21-Associated Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome?
Trisomy 21 (T21) is the most common chromosomal disorder and is associated with a substantially increased risk of epilepsy, affecting approximately 5–10% of children [1,2]. Among infants with T21, infantile epileptic spasms syndrome (IESS) is the most common epilepsy syndrome of the first year of life, with a reported prevalence of 0.6–13%, approximately 100-fold higher than in the general population [3,4]. The occurrence of IESS adds an additional burden to a population already at risk for neurodevelopmental impairment, making early recognition and effective treatment particularly important [2,5,6].