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how long does keppra stay in your system? how about the generic
Fri, 09/21/2012 - 19:16Hi. I had a grand mal seizure on 9/11/2012. My brain cancer is/was in my left frontal lobe which is responsible for speech as well as other functions. My seizures always start the same: stuck on a thought, start to try and talk, gibberish and non nonsensical sounds come out of my mouth until I pass out. This time I was able to crawl out of the bathroom and wrote down on a piece paper for my wife to call 911.
When I saw my doctor, he said that I did not have enough of levetiracetam (generic keppra) in my system. He said that the half life was eight hours - i had no idea.
The last time I had a levetiracetam level check, it registered at 18 where the range is 12 - 46. THis time, the level was 3 within a range of 5.0 - 63.0.
Different labs have different ranges which I understand. But how does one get
to the upper ranges without having built a store in the body? Is it the kidneys that store it or the liver or does it just float around in the blood stream?
Confused and looking for another opinion. Thank you
Comments
Re: how long does keppra stay in your system?
Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Wed, 2012-09-26 - 06:52
Hi BrDietrich,
I lost the chain of reasonnings used in the book I got mainly for the newer references involving TSC non-cancerous tumors ("tubers") versus cancerous tumors and inhibitors (mTOR inhibitors for both?), so I'm confused in the same area with the sub-section on "Cerebral tumor" overlapping with the other sections mentioning tumors.
The sub-section has 5 chapters (pages 433-466) that I don't know of which one might be the most relevant (if any). The amazon-dot-com search "look inside" lists 5 page entries for "levetiracetam" within this sub-section 3.9 of "The Causes of Epilepsy: Common and Uncommon Causes in Adults and Children" edited by Shorvon, Andermann, & Guerrini (2011), (I was fortunate to buy my copy for only $25.00 a few months ago).
Books-dot-google has some of the pages for preview at times also:
page 438 maybe:
http://books.google.com/books?id=BUs-AYMBbC0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+causes+of+epilepsy&source=bl&ots=S56cMKyyHe&sig=RdddyScxuteBt8EDHZldriHNu2w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MMtiUNS4KsmWiQLS04DABg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=lateral%20novel%20levetiracetam%20tumor&f=false
page 465:
http://books.google.com/books?id=BUs-AYMBbC0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+causes+of+epilepsy&source=bl&ots=S56cMKyyHe&sig=RdddyScxuteBt8EDHZldriHNu2w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MMtiUNS4KsmWiQLS04DABg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=levetiracetam%20Colannino&f=false
I haven't searched these chapter's numerous interesting sounding titled references with my computer still often crashing.
Tadzio
Re: how long does keppra stay in your system?
Submitted by brdietrich on Mon, 2012-09-24 - 13:20
Hi Tadzio. A wealth of information. Thank you.
I see the quote in the 2007 pubmed article which you copied above that says: "Responders had levetiracetam plasma concentrations of 4.6 to 21 µg/mL (with a mean of 12.9 µg/mL), but, The Non--Responders had levetiracetam plasma concentrations of 1.1 to 20.9 µg/mL (with a mean of 9.5 µg/mL)...."
I am a brain tumor patient with a resected AAIII in my left frontal lobe. Is there a difference between epilepsy and brain tumor seizures and hence could I be considered inthe group of "non-responding" patients? And why would the non-responsive low range be different with the respondive range yet the mid and high ranges between the two groups be basically the same?. Or is this your point. You agree that the doctors cannot really come to an agreement on what the theraputic ranges should be and then what is the difference between responsive and non-responding patients?
thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate it.
Hi Tadzio. A wealth of information. Thank you.
I see the quote in the 2007 pubmed article which you copied above that says: "Responders had levetiracetam plasma concentrations of 4.6 to 21 µg/mL (with a mean of 12.9 µg/mL), but, The Non--Responders had levetiracetam plasma concentrations of 1.1 to 20.9 µg/mL (with a mean of 9.5 µg/mL)...."
I am a brain tumor patient with a resected AAIII in my left frontal lobe. Is there a difference between epilepsy and brain tumor seizures and hence could I be considered inthe group of "non-responding" patients? And why would the non-responsive low range be different with the respondive range yet the mid and high ranges between the two groups be basically the same?. Or is this your point. You agree that the doctors cannot really come to an agreement on what the theraputic ranges should be and then what is the difference between responsive and non-responding patients?
thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I really appreciate it.