ASEPA Bali, 2018

At the 12th Asian and Oceanian Epilepsy Congress (AOEC), held from June 29 through July 1, 2018 in Bali, the Asian Epilepsy Academy (ASEPA) organized and ran two courses, a two-part workshop, five didactic lectures, and sponsored the Seino Memorial Lecture.

Courses

ASEPA’s two courses ran concurrently on the first day of the congress. Each course lasted three and a half hours

Epilepsy: A practical guide to diagnosis and management

Chaired by Seung-Bong Hong (Republic of Korea) and Yotin Chinvarun (Thailand), this course covered:

  • Clinical features of different seizures types (and why it matters) – Seung Bong Hong
  • Differential diagnosis: Common non-epileptic events – Yotin Chinvarun
  • What tests are needed, if any? – Kurnia Kusumastuti, Indonesia
  • First seizure: When to treat and when not to treat? – Josephine Chan, Australia
  • Newly diagnosed epilepsy: Providing essential education and advice – Parthasarthy Satishchandra, India
  • Newly diagnosed epilepsy: Factors guiding AED treatment – Martin Brodie, Scotland

Why am I still having seizures? (The patient with continuing seizures)

Chaired by Andrew Bleasel (Australia) and Emilio Perucca (Italy), this course covered:

  • Is the diagnosis correct? – Andrew Bleasel
  • Problems with AED usage and possible solutions – Emilio Perucca
  • AED polytherapy – factors guiding selection – Martin Brodie, Scotland
  • Managing acute seizure exacerbations at home – Anannit Visudtibhan, Thailand
  • Managing a progressive underlying process – Derek Chan, Singapore
  • Epilepsy surgery – when to consider? - Byung-In Lee, Republic of Korea

Workshop

ASEPA’s two-part workshop ran on June 28 and June 30, and covered multiple aspects of presenting and publishing research.

Part 1: Sharing your research: Presentation (chaired by Sam Wiebe, Canada)

  • How to write an abstract – Sam Wiebe
  • How to make a platform presentation – John Dunne, Australia
  • How to prepare a poster – Shang-Yeong Kwan, Taiwan

Part 2: Sharing your research: Publication (chaired by Sam Berkovic, Australia)

  • How to write a scientific paper – Sam Berkovic
  • Choosing a journal, authorships, editorial policies and plagiarism – Chong Tin Tan, Malaysia
  • How to handle a rejection – Ennapadam S. Krishnamoorthy, India

Didactic Lectures

Five didactic lectures covered a variety of topics:

  • First seizure evaluation and management: Facts and fiction (chair, Howan Leung, Hong Kong; speaker, Nicholas Lawn, Australia)
  • The clinical utility of EEG in epilepsy care (chair, Muzharul Mannan, Bangladesh; speaker, Kurupath Radhakrishnan, India)
  • Women with epilepsy – pregnancy, contraception, breastfeeding (chair, Somchit Vorachit, Laos; speaker, Zarine Mogal, Pakistan)
  • Keeping patients with epilepsy safe: At home, school and the workplace (chair, Pawan Kumar Sultania, Nepal; speaker, Ernie Somerville, Australia)
  • Training and education in epileptology: From building competencies to developing capabilities (chair, Shang-Yeong Kwan, Taiwan; speaker, Shih Hui Lim, Singapore)

Tadokoro Awards

On July 1, ASEPA presented four young epileptologists with the Tadokoro Awards for excellence in poster presentations and platform presentations.

Platform presentations

First prize: Gita Vita Soraya, Indonesia, for “An interdigitated electrode biosensor platform for rapid HLA-B*15:02 genotyping for prevention of carbamazepine hypersensitivity”. (P014, page 98 in the Congress Abstract Book)

Second prize: Pan Gong, China, for “Scalp-recorded high-frequency oscillations in childhood epileptic encephalopathy with continuous spike-and-wave during sleep with different etiologies”. (P038, page 106)

Poster presentations

First prize: Se Hee Kim, Republic of Korea, for “Efficient strategy for the molecular diagnosis of intractable early-onset epilepsy using targeted gene sequencing”. (P157, page 146)

Second prize: Sanjaya Fernando, Sri Lanka, for “Surgical treatment of patients with pharmaco-resistant epilepsy with Hyperkinetic Seizures: analysis of a paediatric cohort”. (P337, page 205)

Tadokoro Prize 2018
Tadokoro Prize winners: Pan Gong, China; Gita Vita Soraya, Indonesia: Akio Ikeda, ILAE-Asia & Oceania Chair; Se Hee Kim, Republic of Korea, Sanjaya Fernando, Sri Lanka.

Seino Memorial Lecture

This year’s speaker was Chong Tin Tan, Malaysia, who focused on issues in epilepsy care related to work, leisure, upbringing and culture.

Since 2008, this lecture has honored Masakazu Seino (1930-2007), a renowned epileptologist from Japan who was instrumental in establishing the Asian & Oceanian Regional Commission of ILAE (now called ILAE-Asia/Oceania). Read more about Masakazu Seino.