Case-Control Study to Assess the Association between Epilepsy and Infection/Exposure.

Although causes and etiology of epilepsy are mostly obscure, some zoonotic parasites, such as species, have been proposed as a risk factor for this disease. Here, we conducted an age-matched case-control study to evaluate whether there is an association between epilepsy and the presence of serum antibodies to in incident cases. We included 94 idiopathic epileptic patients as cases, and-from the same geographical region-88 people with no own history of epilepsy or neurological disease as control subjects. Epilepsy was confirmed by a physician using the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) definition. All participants were screened for the anti- IgG serum antibody by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Univariate and mutltivariate statistical analyses were applied to calculate the crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Anti- serum antibody was detected in 37 epileptic patients and in 23 control subjects, giving respective seroprevalences of 39.3% (95% CI, 29.4-49.9%) and 26.1% (95% CI, 17.3-36.5%), respectively. Adjusted multivariate logistic regression analysis estimated an OR of 2.38 (95% CI, 1.25-4.63), indicating a significant association between epilepsy and seropositivity. There was also a significant association between seropositivity to and partial (OR, 2.60; 95% CI, 1.14-6.04) or generalized (OR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.09-4.40%) seizures. Findings from the present study of incident epileptic cases support previous studies proposing that infection/exposure is a risk factor for epilepsy. However, further well-designed population-based surveys and mechanistic/experimental studies in animal models are required to better understand the reason(s) for this association.