Seroprevalence of <i>Toxoplasma</i> <i>Gondii</i> and<i> Toxocara Spp</i> in Children with Cryptogenic Epilepsy

Abstract

Cryptogenic epilepsy is a group of epilepsy syndromes where aetiology is unknown but an underlying brain disease is suspected. Increased seropositivity for <i>Toxocara</i> and <i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> have been observed in epileptic patients with sparse data about their seropositivity in cryptogenic epileptic patients. Therefore, we investigated the probable relationship between seropositivity against <i>T. gondii </i>and <i>Toxocara</i> with cryptogenic epilepsy. We examined patients who had cryptogenic epilepsy and healthy non epileptic controls for seropositivity for <i>Toxocara </i>and<i> T. gondii </i>antibodies by ELISA. Out of 132 cryptogenic epileptic patients, 80 (60.6 %) and 64 (48.5%) were seropositive for <i>T. gondii</i> and <i>Toxocara</i> immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies respectively. The seropositivity in the control group was 26 (43.3%) and 28 (46.7%) for <i>T. gondii</i> and <i>Toxocara</i> IgG respectively. We found a significant association between chronic <i>T. gondii</i> infection and cryptogenic epilepsy while the association between <i>Toxocara</i> infection and cryptogenic epilepsy was insignificant. Our findings indicate that toxoplasmosis may be a cause of cryptogenic epilepsy. We recommended both promoting health education to prevent such infection and screening children for toxoplasmosis which would help early treatment and so decreasing the incidence of epilepsy.