Liimatainen S et al. (2009) The high prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies in refractory focal epilepsy is related to recurrent seizures. Eur J Neurol 16: 134–141

Antiphospholipid antibodies have been associated with epilepsy, but the relationship between levels of these antibodies and seizure frequency, or duration, type and etiology of well-characterized epilepsy has not been determined. Liimatainen and colleagues, therefore, investigated the effect of parameters of antiphospholipid antibodies in patients with refractory focal epilepsy.

The researchers measured IgG and IgM class anticardiolipin, anti-β2-glycoprotein 1 and antinuclear antibody levels in 105 adult patients with refractory focal epilepsy (86 patients had recent seizures, i.e. during the month before sampling) evaluated over a 2-year period, and 70 healthy controls. Compared with patients with no recent seizures and controls, patients with recent seizures had higher levels of IgG class anticardiolipin antibodies (11% and 13%, respectively, versus 29%). Levels of IgM class anticardiolipin antibodies or antinuclear antibodies did not differ notably between the three study groups. No associations were observed between prevalence of IgG class anticardiolipin antibodies and etiology, duration or type of epilepsy.

Liimatainen et al. were unable to determine whether changes in the levels of antiphospholipid antibodies were a result of, or a causal factor in, epileptic seizures; however, these results suggest that levels of IgG class anticardiolipin antibodies correlate with seizure frequency. Such antibodies could, therefore, be useful markers to predict outcome in patients with epilepsy.