Abstracts

Rationale: Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent among patients with epilepsy. It is thought to be more often in elderly patients, yet the particular association between vitamin D level and age in patients with epilepsy is unclear Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted in a single epilepsy research center in Saudi Arabia between November 2016 and April 2017. The study included patients aged 15 years and above with confirmed diagnosis of epilepsy, and measured vitamin D level within the study duration Results: From a total of 315 charts reviewed, 112 patients have been investigated, who fulfilled our inclusion criteria. There were 45 (40%) men, mean age was 33 years (range; 15-78, SD=14 years), and mean duration of epilepsy was 14 years (range; 1-6, SD=12 years). Most of the patients had symptomatic epilepsy (70%), where an identified lesion in brain MRI was observed in 68 (61 %) patients, and epileptic EEG discharges were documented in 72 (64%) patients. The mean vitamin D level was 36.7 nmol/L (range; 20-73, SD= 20.7 nmol/L), which is below the normal reference level of >50 nmol/L. There was a positive correlation between the age of the patient and vitamin D level (correlation coefficient = 0.3, p < 0.05, 95% CI; 0.12-0.46). Furthermore, multiple linear regression analysis showed that vitamin D levels increased by 1.8 nmol/L for each increase of age by ten years (p < 0.001, 95% CI; 0.5 – 3.1), adjusted for gender, the number of antiepileptic drugs, epilepsy etiology, MRI and EEG findings. This significant association was not influenced by either sex or duration of epilepsy Conclusions: Younger epileptic patients were more likely to have lower levels of vitamin D, irrespective of sex or treatment regimen. This observation supports the need to assess vitamin D in all patients with epilepsy, particularly in younger patients. However, this finding and its clinical implication need to be replicated in a large prospective study Funding: none