Toxocariasis in epileptic patients

ABSTRACT

Ninety nine epileptic patients [66 males and 33 females], with ages ranged from 11 - 40 years and with ages of onset of seizures below 20 years, were chosen from rural areas. They were classified into 2 groups First group included 84 patients [54 males and 30 females] with epilepsy of unknown cause and negative family history, and second group included 15 patients [12 males and 3 females] with epilepsy due to known cause [other than Toxocara infection] or with positive family history for epilepsy. They were age-matched with 30 healthy controls [20 males and 10 females]. Every patient was subjected to full history taking, thorough general and neurological examination, EEG, stool analysis, serodiagnosis of Toxocara canis infection by IFAT and ELISA after adsorption of sera using Ascaris vitulorum to avoid cross reaction with Ascaris antibodies. The following results were obtained IFAT revealed that 21.4% of epileptics of first group and 13.3% of those of second group were seropositives for toxocariasis, while ELISA detected seropositivity for toxocariasis in 28.57% of patients of first group and in 20% of those of second group. The seropositive controls were 3.33% by both tests. This means that ELISA was more reliable in the diagnosis of Toxocara than IFAT. Also seropositivity for toxocariasis was more in epileptic patients of unknown cause than those with known causes for epilepsy and both groups were more than the controls. Eosinophilia was present in 44.4% of seropositive epileptic patients. Ages of onset of seizures in seropositive epileptics were 5.5 years +/- 1.4 years in the first group and 6.66 years +/- 0.57 years in the second group. Male patients were more affected than females. The type of seizures in seropositive epileptics of unknown cause and negative family history [first group] was generalized tonic-clonic. Our findings made us to say that toxocariasis has a role in the etiogenesis of epilepsy in children of risky environment