Abstracts

Rationale: To estimate the incidence of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) in patients with epilepsy aged 1-49 years in an unselected nationwide population in Denmark. Methods: All Danish residents aged 1-49 years in 2007-2009 with prevalent epilepsy defined as persons registered with an epilepsy diagnosis (ICD-10: G40) in the Danish National Patient Registry within the last 10 years prior to the study period were extracted. All death certificates and autopsy reports were evaluated independently by two neurologists and one neuro-pediatrician to identify cases of definite, probable, and possible SUDEP. Results: In total 39,613 persons with epilepsy were followed for 101,912 person-years. We identified 57 cases of definite and probable SUDEP corresponding to a crude incidence of definite and probable SUDEP of 0.56/1000 person-years. When including possible SUDEP, 108 SUDEP cases were identified resulting in a SUDEP incidence of 1.06/1000 person-years. Compared with an incidence of sudden unexplained death (SUD) of 0.09/1000 person-years in Danish residents aged 1-49 without epilepsy the hazard ratio of SUD between persons with and without epilepsy was 11.2. Conclusions: We estimated a SUDEP incidence in young epilepsy patients comparable to previous findings and an 11 fold higher rate of SUD compared with persons without epilepsy. Funding: The Lundbeck Foundation: PhD grant of 1.875.000,00 DKK (293,157 USD)The Aase and Ejner Danielsen Foundation: 75,000.00 DKK (11,726 USD)The A.P. Møller Foundation for the Advancement of Medical Science: Grant of 25,000.00 DKK (3,909 USD)The Lennart Gram Foundation for Epilepsy Science: Grant of 15,000.00 DKK (2,345 USD)