Prevalence of childhood and adolescence epilepsy in Upper Egypt (desert areas)

Abstract

BackgroundA high prevalence of epilepsy in children is frequently found in developing countries.ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine the prevalence and clinical pattern of childhood and adolescence epilepsy in Upper Egypt.MethodsThis is a door-to-door study conducted on all inhabitants < 18 years in Al Kharga district and Al Qusier city (36,195 subjects). The study was conducted through two stages; every stage consisted of two phases (screening and diagnostic).ResultsLifetime prevalence of childhood and adolescence epilepsy (children < 18 years) in Upper Egypt was 9.7/1000, with higher prevalence among children < 12 years (10.8/1000) than adolescents (7.2/1000). The age-specific prevalence was highest in early childhood (12.01/1000) and least at adolescence (7.2/1000). More than half of the patients (59.4%) had idiopathic epilepsy. The most frequent etiology for structural/metabolic epilepsy was perinatal complications, particularly in infancy, followed by central nervous system (CNS) infections, in childhood, and post-traumatic epilepsy in adolescence. Partial seizures were more frequent in infancy, while generalized seizures were more frequent in late childhood and adolescence. Generalized tonic-clonic seizures (GTCS) were the most frequent type of seizures.ConclusionPrevalence of childhood and adolescence epilepsy in Upper Egypt was not so much different from other developing countries. Idiopathic epilepsy was more prevalent than structural/metabolic cases. Perinatal complications, CNS infections, and head injury were the most frequent etiologies, and generalized tonic-clonic seizures were the most frequent seizure type.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s41983-018-0032-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Diagnostic and prognostic role of proton single-voxel spectroscopy (SVS) in non-lesional epilepsy pediatric patients: prospective controlled study

“…This went with Farghaly et al, who conducted a study to determine the prevalence and clinical pattern of epilepsy among children and adolescents in upper Egypt. This study demonstrated generalized seizures as the most frequent type in epileptic children and adolescents [16].…”

Comparison of Serum Zinc and Copper Levels in Children with Intractable and Controlled Eplipsy

“…Cupper showed significantly higher level in epileptic cases when compared to control groups (p=0.002) Table (2).…”

“…Epilepsy begins in childhood in more than half of the cases. Approximately 50 million people in the world have epilepsy, up to rumrone -third of whom continue to have seizures despite appropriate drug treatment [2].…”

The association between toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) genotyping and the risk of epilepsy in children

“…Different studies from Egypt reported the prevalence of epilepsy among Egyptian children. A study reported that the lifetime prevalence of epilepsy in children below 18 years old was 9.7/1000 [6]. Another two studies reported a prevalence of 7-10/1000 among children at school who were less than 15 years of age [7,8], while another study reported a higher rate of 12.9/1000 among children < 12 years [9].…”