[Epilepsy and Turner's syndrome: report of a case and review of the literature]

Hypogonadism and neurological diseases

Affected patients with hypogonadism have unnaturally low amounts of sex hormones that produce male and female sex characteristics. Males who suffer from this condition lack testosterone, while females fail to produce enough estrogen. Hypogonadism may be present at birth, or it may take effect years later following injury or illness to the sex glands. Hypogonadism has remarkable associations with variable medical disorders; however, it is characterized by a distinctive association with variable neurological disorders: such as epilepsy, ataxia, dysmyelination, nerve muscle disease, movement disorders, mental retardation and deafness. The remarkable neurological diseases with hypogonadism should not basically be regarded as coincidental findings, but possibly related to an intrinsic pathophysiological association.

Intractable epilepsy in Turner syndrome associated with bilateral perisylvian hypoplasia: one case report

Turner syndrome (TS) is the most frequent sex abnormality in females, generally associated with a 45,X0 karyotype. Although neurological complications are frequently part of the clinical picture, serious brain abnormalities are quite rare in TS. Epilepsy in TS is not frequent and so far only few cases have been reported, usually associated with cortical dysplasias. We report a Turner patient showing severe neurological impairment, refractory epilepsy and MRI finding of bilateral perisylvian hypoplasia. The possible dysgenetic role of X-chromosome on cortical morphogenesis is also discussed.