Abstracts

Rationale: Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common adult onset epilepsy with a less favorable seizure control. It is unknown if social habits such as parental consanguinity (PC) has a role in the prognosis of TLE.Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted in Abha, Saudi Arabia between June of 2012 and May of 2013. We identified 120 patients with TLE in our epilepsy registry, but only 79 patients had complete data and a 6 months follow up, and were included in this study. Age at epilepsy onset was determined, and epilepsy risk factors, EEG and MRI brain were identified. Family history of epilepsy (FHE) and history of parental consanguinity (PC) were also obtained. Patients were divided into two groups based on achieving seizure freedom during the six-months follow up.Results: There were 32 (41%) men. The mean age of epilepsy onset was 19 years (range;0-75, SD=13 years). Figure 1 shows identified risk factors. FHE was documented in 20 patients (25%), and PC in 16 (20%). 51 patients (65 %) were seizure free over 6 months follow up. PC was seen significantly less in patients achieving seizure freedom (28 vs 72%, p = 0.041). Despite the presence of FHE more in those who were seizure free, its distribution was not significant across the groups (63 vs 37%, p = 0.6) (Figure 2). Multivariate regression analysis showed that the absence of PC was the only predictor of achieving seizure freedom in 6-months follow up (p=0.043, Odds ration= 6.4).Conclusions: Parental consanguinity appears to have an impact on the prognosis of TLE in our population. This observation may suggest a genetic influence of PC on the prognosis of TLE, particularly in a population with a known high rates of consanguinity, yet further studies are required to confirm such an observation.