Behind the Seizure®

Test early to expedite care

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No-cost epilepsy gene panel testing program

The Behind the Seizure® program offers the Invitae Epilepsy Panel to any child under the age of 8 who has had an unprovoked seizure.

An epilepsy gene panel can bring you closer to understanding what’s causing your patient’s epilepsy, helping your patients and their caregivers benefit from deeper knowledge and timely care.

  • More than 50% of epilepsies have some genetic basis. When a patient presents with seizures, genetic testing may help identify 100+ underlying genetic causes. Early genetic testing may be the most direct, cost-effective, and accurate diagnostic tool.1

  • Many genes are actionable. Gene panels increasingly help tailor your approach—more than 20 genes have been linked to specific treatment strategies. Identifying a seizure’s underlying etiology may enable more precise treatment.

  • Delay can be devastating for patients with genetic epilepsy. Some genetic epilepsies are neurodegenerative, and may initially present with subtle, non-specific symptoms like language development delay and/or motor disturbance. Genetic testing may help identify the cause of epilepsy before a patient experiences the hallmark signs of regression.

  • Genetic epilepsies may be hiding behind non-specific symptoms. Language delay, motor disturbance, and intellectual impairment are often co­moribidities and useful indicators for molecular genetic testing.2

Program eligibility

  • Any child under the age of 8 who has had an unprovoked seizure.

  • Specimen samples for this program are accepted from the US and Canada only.

Invitae Epilepsy Panel

The Invitae Epilepsy Panel offers a broad and comprehensive analysis for genetic epilepsy, which includes genes associated with both syndromic and non-syndromic causes of epilepsy, including neurodegenerative conditions.

Turnaround time for the panel is rapid. Once Invitae receives the sample, you will receive results within 10 to 21 calendar days, on average.

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Ordering made easy

The Behind the Seizure program accepts orders from the US and Canada.

To place a paper-based order: 

Download the US order form

Or,

Download the Canadian order form

To place an order online:

  1. Enter the Behind the Seizure online ordering portal
  2. After completing the Behind the Seizure online ordering portal, follow the instructions to the Invitae portal to complete your order

To collect a specimen:

  1. Order a specimen collection kit
  2. Label the sample tube with the patient’s full name, date of birth, and sample collection date
  3. For additional information, see specimen and shipping requirements

To receive results:

  1. Once Invitae receives the sample, you will receive the results in 10-21 calendar days, on average
  2. If you created an online account, you can view the status of your order by logging into your account
  3. You will receive a notification email once the test results are ready

Support every step of the way

Client Services

Available to answer your questions or help you through the testing process.

Contact

Clinical Support Services

Licensed, board-certified genetic counselors, ready to support you.

Support

Precision medicine implications from genetic testing in childhood epilepsy 

  • Among nearly 10,000 patients with epilepsy, 14.9% to 24.4% received a definitive molecular diagnosis from lnvitae genetic testing.3

  • More than half of these diagnoses were in children younger than 5 years.3 

  • Precision medicine implications were identified in 33% of individuals with a positive test result.3 

References

  1. Pal DK, et al. Genetic evaluation and counseling for epilepsy. Nat Rev Neurol. 2010;6:445-453.

  2. Nickels KC, et al. Cognitive and neurodevelopmental comorbidities in paediatric epilepsy. Nat Rev Neurol. 2016 Aug;12(8):465-76.

  3. Truty R et al. Possible precision medicine implications from genetic testing using combined detection of sequence and intragenic copy number variants in a large cohort with childhood epilepsy. Epilepsia Open. 2019;10:28.