Bone mineral density and urinary hydoxyproline are already abnormal in newly diagnosed patients with epilepsy in this North Indian study

Background & Objective:Epilepsy may have an impact on bone health of the patients even before drug therapy is initiated, particularly in the developing countries. This is in view of long delay in diagnosis and lifestyle changes. Therefore, in this study, bone health markers like bone mineral density (BMD) and urinary hydroxyproline were assessed in newly diagnosed epilepsy patients. Methods: The BMD was assessed by DEXA scan, and 24 hour urine hydroxyproline was estimated colorimetrically in 25 newly diagnosed epilepsy patients. Other bone markers like calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D and alkaline phosphatase were also estimated. Results were compared with 25 age and sex matched healthy controls, and were analyzed statistically. Results: The BMD and vitamin D were found to be significantly decreased (p0.05). Conclusions: Bone health is found to be already compromised in epilepsy patients in this study from North India. BMD and urinary hydroxyproline may act as simple, non-invasive, convenient and inexpensive markers to assess bone health in these patients

Therapeutic drug monitoring for antiepileptic drugs using HPLC: An experience at a tertiary care hospital in India

This study was carried out to analyse retrospectively the data of 1,349 patients receiving antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) distributed drug wise into subtherapeutic, therapeutic, toxic and not detectable ranges. Patients were divided into three groups based on the monotherapy they received. In Phenytoin group (n=1255), 26.4% were found to be in therapeutic range, 51.6% in the subtherapeutic range and 20.6% in the toxic range. For Carbamazepine (n=63), 52.4% were in the therapeutic range, 14.3% were in subtherapeutic range, 31.7% in the toxic range and 1.6% were undetectable. Phenobarbitone levels (n=31) were found to be 64.5% in therapeutic range, 22.6% in subtherapeutic range, 9.7% in toxic range and 3.2% in the undetectable range. In 100 patients of phenytoin analyses which were under good seizure control and free of adverse effects, 46% were found to be in therapeutic range, 31% were in subtherapeutic range and 23% were found to be in toxic range. On the basis of this data, it is recommended that therapeutic drug monitoring should be carried out in all patients receiving AEDs for better overall management and long term clinical outcome.