# Seizures and Children's Outcomes after Stroke (SCOUTS)

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2022 · $742,670

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Epilepsy is one of the common problems that can result after ischemic stroke in a child. Children with post-
stroke epilepsy have poorer cognitive outcomes, poorer quality of life and worse health measures. A better
understanding of the determinants of post-stroke epilepsy is needed. Children who have acute seizures (those
that occur within one week of the stroke) are more likely to develop epilepsy later in childhood, with a
cumulative epilepsy incidence of 58% by 10 years. Inflammation and infarct location are two potential links
between acute seizures and later development of epilepsy after pediatric stroke. Based on studies in animals
and prior work, acute seizures worsen the inflammation that occurs after a stroke; in turn, inflammation may be
an important mediator of epilepsy. Another possibility is that acute seizures are a marker of an injury to the
anatomic brain regions or networks that are epileptogenic. This ancillary study proposal will examine acute
seizures and post-stroke epilepsy in children who had a stroke (28 days of life up to 19 years of age at stroke
onset) who were enrolled in two separate cohorts. The two independent cohorts will be utilized as a discovery
and validation set. One cohort is from the completed VIPS I study of childhood stroke, and the second is from
the ongoing VIPS II study of childhood stroke. In Aim 1, the inflammatory signaling pathways activated by
acute seizures will be determined using banked blood collected from children after stroke, validating
preliminary work from the VIPS I cohort. In Aim 2, changes in inflammatory signaling pathways will be
identified in children who later develop epilepsy. Epilepsy outcomes will be ascertained in both cohorts.
Banked blood collected at several timepoints after the stroke will be utilized to determine differential expression
of analytes in those who develop epilepsy compared to those who do not. In Aim 3, lesion-symptom mapping
and lesion-network mapping will identify the brain regions and functional networks associated with post-stroke
epilepsy. Machine learning techniques will be used to integrate results from these three aims, creating models
that include relevant laboratory data, clinical data and imaging data. The “Seizures and Children's Outcomes
after Stroke (SCOUTS)” study is important because it will improve understanding of epilepsy after pediatric
stroke. The results will provide evidence for molecular and anatomic pathways associated with seizures and
epileptogenesis and will be used in future research of anti-inflammatory therapeutic agents to reduce the risk of
post-stroke epilepsy. The SCOUTS study will identify predictors of epilepsy to improve prognostication for
families and inform inclusion criteria in future trials. A rich dataset of longitudinal stroke outcomes will also be
a legacy of the study. The long-term objectives of this research are to find a treatment that can be given after a
child has a stroke to effecti...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10367580
- **Project number:** 1R01NS119896-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Christine K. Fox
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $742,670
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-01-01 → 2026-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10367580

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10367580, Seizures and Children's Outcomes after Stroke (SCOUTS) (1R01NS119896-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10367580. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*