It is believed that antibodies to the Shaker-type K+ channels (the Kv1 family) are the type of potassium channel most strongly associated with acquired neuromyotonia and Morvans Syndrome.Whether VGKC antibodies play a pathogenic role in the encephalopathy as they do in the peripheral nervous system is as yet unclear. It has been suggested that the VGKC antibodies may cross the blood–brain barrier and act centrally, binding predominantly to thalamic and striatal neurons causing encephalopathic and autonomic features. Diagnosis
Differential diagnosis
The symptoms of Morvans Syndrome have been noted to bear a striking similarity to limbic encephalitis (LE). These include the CNS symptoms consisting of insomnia, hallucinations, and disorientation, as well as dementia and psychosis. Both entities can be paraneoplastic and associated with thymoma. Recently, VGKC antibodies were found in patients with LE, strengthening the hypothesis that LE and Morvans Syndrome may be closely connected. Varying symptoms may be used to determine which of the two diseases the subject has. Amnesia, seizures, and mesial temporal lobe structural abnormalities are features of LE, whereas myokymia, hyperhydrosis, and insomnia favor Morvans Syndrome. Treatment
In most of the reported cases, the treatment options were very similar. Plasmapheresis alone or in combination with steroids, sometimes also with thymectomy and azathioprine, have been the most frequently used therapeutic approach in treating Morvans Syndrome. However, this does not always work, as failed response to steroids and to subsequently added plasmapheresis have been reported.
Vigabatrin, brand name Sabril, is a medication used to treat epilepsy. It became available as a generic medication in 2019.It works by inhibiting the breakdown of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA). It is also known as γ-vinyl-GABA, and is a structural analogue of GABA, but does not bind to GABA receptors. Medical uses
Epilepsy
In Canada, vigabatrin is approved for use as an adjunctive treatment (with other drugs) in treatment resistant epilepsy, complex partial seizures, secondary generalized seizures, and for monotherapy use in infantile spasms in West syndrome.As of 2003, vigabatrin is approved in Mexico for the treatment of epilepsy that is not satisfactorily controlled by conventional therapy (adjunctive or monotherapy) or in recently diagnosed patients who have not tried other agents (monotherapy).Vigabatrin is also indicated for monotherapy use in secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures, partial seizures, and in infantile spasms due to West syndrome.On August 21, 2009, Lundbeck announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted two New Drug Application approvals for vigabatrin. The drug is indicated as monotherapy for pediatric patients one month to two years of age with infantile spasms for whom  the potential benefits outweigh the potential risk of vision loss, and as adjunctive (add-on) therapy for adult patients with refractory complex partial seizures (CPS) who have inadequately responded to several alternative treatments and for whom the potential benefits outweigh the risk of vision loss.In 1994, Feucht and Brantner-Inthaler reported that vigabatrin reduced seizures by 50-100% in 85% of children with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome who had poor results with sodium valproate.