| Title | Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy in intractable childhood epilepsy: open-label study and review of the literature. | | Author(s) | Mikati MA, Kurdi R, El-Khoury Z, Rahi A, Raad W | | Institution | Adult and Pediatric Epilepsy Program, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon. mohamad.mikati@duke.edu | | Source | Epilepsy Behav 2010 Jan; 17(1):90-4. | | MeSH | Adolescent
Child
Child, Preschool
Epilepsy
Female
Humans
Immunoglobulins, Intravenous
Immunologic Factors
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Multivariate Analysis
Young Adult
| | Abstract | Our aim was to investigate the long term effectiveness of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) against intractable childhood epilepsy in the era of new antiepileptics and to determine the predictors of a favorable response in a prospective open-label add-on study. Of thirty-seven 9.9+/-0.9-year-old patients (11 with partial seizures, 26 with generalized seizures of whom 9 had West syndrome and 17 Lennox-Gastaut syndrome) followed for 15+/-3 months, 43% had a >50% decrease in seizures (including 15% seizure free, 229+/-58 compared with 104+/-3 seizures/month, P=0.035: generalized 246+/-318 to 117+/-200, P=0.025, partial 191+/-437 to 72+/-179, P>0.05; power=0.2). Males were more likely to respond than females (P=0.011, odds ratio=9.3). Review of the literature revealed nine other articles reporting efficacy of IVIG against epileptic seizures. Only one other used statistical methods and, unlike ours, showed only a trend toward seizure frequency reduction without achieving statistical significance, presumably because it was underpowered. These results indicate large-scale controlled studies of IVIG in epilepsy are still needed. | | Language | eng | | Pub Type(s) | Clinical Trial
Journal Article
Review
| | PubMed ID | 20004620 |
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