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Care of Children with Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome and Applicability of Telemedicine Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Abstract

This ambispective, observational study evaluated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on managing children with Infantile epileptic spasms syndrome (IESS) and the feasibility of telemedicine-based management for IESS. Caregivers of children with IESS were telephonically interviewed using a structured questionnaire and various relevant indices were compared between the study population and a pre-pandemic cohort from the same center. There was a significant increase in diagnostic lag during the pandemic (p = 0.04). Adrenocorticotropic hormone was the first-line antiseizure medication of choice in both cohorts and the response to treatment was also similar. Telemedicine was utilized by around 80% of caregivers and satisfaction rates with telemedicine were high. However, caregivers continued to rate physical consultations higher in preference.

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Acknowledgments

PM was supported by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Grant Reference No. Pool-9000-A. PD was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Grant Reference No 3/1/3/JRF-2018/HRD – 068 (60176).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pediatric Neurology Unit, Advanced Pediatric Centre, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, India

    Dev Desai, Priyanka Madaan, Pooja Dhir, Renu Suthar, Arushi Gahlot Saini, Naveen Sankhyan & Jitendra Kumar Sahu

  2. Department of Pediatric Neurology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Faridabad, India

    Priyanka Madaan

  3. Department of Pharmacy Practice, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), S.A.S. Nagar, Mohali, Punjab, India

    Nagita Devi & Dipika Bansal

Authors
  1. Dev Desai
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  2. Priyanka Madaan
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  3. Pooja Dhir
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  4. Nagita Devi
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  5. Renu Suthar
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  6. Arushi Gahlot Saini
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  7. Dipika Bansal
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  8. Naveen Sankhyan
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  9. Jitendra Kumar Sahu
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Contributions

DD: Study design, drafting the work, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, manuscript writing and approval of the manuscript; PM: Study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, manuscript writing and approval of the manuscript; PD: Data collection, data interpretation, manuscript writing and approval of the manuscript; ND, DB: Data collection, data interpretation and approval of the manuscript; RS, AS, NS: Study design, data collection, data interpretation and approval of the manuscript; JKS: Conceptualization of study and design, data collection, data interpretation, manuscript writing and approval of the manuscript. JKS will act as guarantor for this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jitendra Kumar Sahu.

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Desai, D., Madaan, P., Dhir, P. et al. Care of Children with Infantile Epileptic Spasms Syndrome and Applicability of Telemedicine Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic. Indian J Pediatr 90, 1254–1256 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-023-04735-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-023-04735-1

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