Ask the Expert: Lamotrigine and the Heart: Cause for Concern? (RECORDING)

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Description

**This is a recording of the live webinar on March 11, 2021**

This webinar will alert epilepsy providers about new FDA safety warnings regarding potential cardiac effects of lamotrigine and to offer guidance for clinical care and communicating with patients.

Faculty will share their expertise in pharmacology, cardiology and epilepsy clinical care in the context of guidance on the lamotrigine safety warning. The webinar agenda includes time for attendee Q&A and input about the impact of lamotrigine in clinical practice.

Contributors

David Ficker, MD, University of Cincinnati, Moderator

David Ficker, MD, is a neurologist with the Epilepsy Center at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute and has been a neurologist with UC Health since 1997. He is currently the associate director of the Epilepsy Center, as well as the medical director of the EEG Lab and Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He has been Professor of Neurology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine since 2015. His clinical practice focuses on epilepsy and seizures, both recent onset and difficult to control cases including surgical management of epilepsy.

He is an active member of the American Epilepsy Society where he serves as chair of the Online Learning Committee and is member of the Council on Education.

He has been a member of the Epilepsy Foundation Professional Advisory Board (PAB) for the past 10 years and is the current Chair of the PAB.
David S. Auerbach, PhD FAES

David Auerbach, PhD, is the Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. He is also the co-chair of the AES Junior Investigator and Fellows Committee, co-chair of the AES SUDEP Special Interest Group, and on the Organizing Committee for the Epilepsy Foundation SUDEP Coalition: Basic Science Co-chair. His biomedical research training began during his undergraduate studies at Skidmore College, and masters training from the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at Case Western Reserve University. He conducted his doctoral studies in the laboratory of Dr. Jose Jalife at Upstate Medical University, where he provided insights into the substrates (structuralheterogeneities) and triggers (alterations in ion channel expression and function) for arrhythmias. Subsequently, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan in Dr. Lori Isom’s laboratory. He demonstrated that in severe genetic forms of epilepsy, there are not only alterations in electrical function in the brain, but also in the heart, resulting in both seizures and cardiac arrhythmias. In 2014 Dr. Auerbach joined University of Rochester Medical Center and began developing an independent line of research. He demonstrated that a classically studied inherited cardiac arrhythmia disease is also associated with an increased risk of seizures. In 2019 he transitioned to Upstate Medical
University as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. He employs a multi-system (brain & heart) and multiscale (molecular, cellular, animal, clinical database) approach to investigating the implications that alterations in ion channel function and expression have on the susceptibility to arrhythmias and seizures. His research has demonstrated that it is important to look outside the classic organ of study. https://www.upstate.edu/pharm/research/index.php?empID=auerbacd
Jacqueline French, MD

Dr. Jacqueline French is a professor of Neurology in the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at NYU Langone School of Medicine and Founder/Director of the Epilepsy Study Consortium, an academic group that has performed a number of early phase clinical trials in epilepsy, and has developed new methodologies for epilepsy trials. Dr. French trained in Neurology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and did her fellowship training in EEG and epilepsy at Mount Sinai hospital and Yale University. Dr French has focused her research efforts on development of new therapeutics for epilepsy, and new methodologies for clinical trialsand has served as the Principle investigator on a number of trials for new epilepsy drugs. She has served as chair of the ILAE North American Regional Commission, and Commission on Therapeutic strategies. Dr. French serves as the Chief Medical/Innovation Officer of the Epilepsy Foundation. She is the past president of the American Epilepsy Society. She is the recipient of the American Epilepsy Society Lennox Award (2017) and Service Award (2005), the Epilepsy Foundation Hero award (2013), and is an ILAE Ambassador for Epilepsy. She has authored over 300 articles and chapters, and lectures internationally on clinical trials and use of antiepileptic drugs.
Lennart Bergfeldt, MD, PhD

Lennart Bergfeldt, MD, PhD, is Senior Professor in Cardiology at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg and Senior Consultant in the Department of Cardiology at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. Dr. Bergfeldt’s past appointments have included Adjunct Professor in Cardiology (clinical electrophysiology) at Karolinska Institutet, Visiting Associate Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Electrophysiologist at Stanford University Medical Center, and Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet, where he also received his MD and PhD.

Dr. Bergfeldt’s main research area is clinical cardiac electrophysiology, applying invasive and non-invasive methods in healthy individuals and patients. Among his past research questions are intermittent bradycardia as the cause of syncope and the cardiac effects of carbamazepine. Cardiac memory function is a focus of ongoing research.

Thank you

Description

Contributors

David Ficker, MD, University of Cincinnati, Moderator

David S. Auerbach, PhD FAES

Jacqueline French, MD

Lennart Bergfeldt, MD, PhD