Data were insufficient to establish validity for simple partial seizures. Usually, following an epileptic seizure the increase in serum PRL lev- els reached baseline levels within 6 hours. There- fore, serum PRL, when measured more than 6 hours after a suspected event, should be represen- tative of the baseline PRL level (level B of rec- ommendations) 2 . Inconclusive clinical studies in patients with repetitive seizure attacks, reported that the time between each seizure may be impor- tant to determine the serum PRL levels, even if the utility of serum PRL assay has not been es- tablished in the evaluation of single epileptic seizure and repetitive seizure 2 . However, there are not studies in repetitive temporal seizures, with and without damage of temporal structure, what they appraise the time attenuation of serum PRL. The aim of our study was to evaluate the duration of serum PRL following repetitive seizures in wake- fulness in patients affected by temporal lobe epilep- sy with and without damage of temporal lobe. Subjects and Methods The study was performed in the Department of Neuroscience, Division of Neurology of Cosenza Hospital, Italy, in patients seeking Emergency De- partment care after seizures attacks in wakefulness. Two groups of subjects were included in the investigation: Group I (epileptic patients): patients with both an established diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy and repetitive partial seizures with sec- ondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures. Group II (epileptic-ischemic patients): pa- tients with cerebral ischemia in temporal lobe epilepsy and repetitive partial seizures with sec- ondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures. 365 Abstract. – The primary aim of this work was: to evaluate the time course of serum pro- lactin (PRL) increase following repetitive seizures in epileptic patients with (Group II) and without (Group I) temporal ischemia. Epileptic patients were examined after 2 or 3 epileptic seizures in wakefulness with seizure- free intervals of 4 hours. Serum PRL levels was assessed within 3 hours of the last epileptic seizure and up to 48 hours after. The increase of serum PRL attained within baseline levels after 6 h in Group I and after 12 h in Group II. A longer increase of serum PRL lev- els were observed in Group II patients respect to Group I (P < 0.01). In conclusion, this different long time attenua- tion of serum PRL following repetitive temporal seizures with and without damage of temporal structure, may be useful in order to better analyse the synaptic transmission involved in the pathways interconnect limbic areas. Key Words: Temporal lobe epilepsy, Repetitive seizures in wake- fulness, Serum prolactin Introduction Prolactin (PRL) serum elevation following seizures has been considered a potential candi- date for a surrogate marker 1,2 . Pooled sensitivity was higher for generalized tonic-clonic seizures (60%) than for complex partial seizures (46,1%), while the pooled speci- ficity was similar for both (approximately 96%) 2 . European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences 2008; 12: 365-368 Corresponding Author: Luca Gallelli, MD; e-mail: luca_gallelli@hotmail.com Serum prolactin levels in repetitive temporal epileptic seizures A. SINISCALCHI 1 *, L. GALLELLI 2 *, N.B. MERCURI 3 , G. DE SARRO 2 1 Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Division, “Annunziata” Hospital, Cosenza (Italy) 2 Chair of Pharmacology, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Magna Grecia of Catanzaro, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacovigilance Unit, Mater Domini University Hospital, Catanzaro (Italy) 3 IRCCS-S. Lucia and Department of Neurology, University “Tor Vergata”, Rome (Italy) ––––––––––––––––––– *Siniscalchi A. and Gallelli L. share the authorship