Toxoplasma infection and epilepsy: A case-control study in Iran

ABSTRACT

Epilepsy is one of the most important neurological diseases with prolonged morbidity and cerebral toxoplasmosis is one of the main cause’s aquired epilepsy in developing countries. In this study, we aimed at investigating the frequency of Toxoplasma infection among patients with cryptogenic epilepsy and the epidemiological factors associated with disease. Eighty fi ve patients with cryptogenic epilepsy and 85 healthy subjects were studied. Anti-Toxoplasma antibody status was determined in all serum samples, using ELISA technique. The frequency of Toxoplasma infection was found to be signifi cantly higher in epilepsy patients as compared to the healthy control (14.1%, 4.7%, respectively) (P=0.036). There was no signifi cant difference between cryptogenic epilepsy patients and healthy control in age, education, gender and residency (P>0.05). This study indicates that Toxoplasma infection is a risk factor for epilepsy in Iran.