(ANSA) - ROME, SEPTEMBER 19 - The use of many epileptic drugs, the absence of antibodies directed against neurons and resistance to therapies could be the underlying factors in the chronicization of epilepsy following an autoimmune attack of the brain.
This is suggested by a multicentric study coordinated by Irccs San Martino in Genoa, in collaboration with the Salesi Pediatric Hospital of Ancona and with the patronage of the Italian League Against Epilepsy (LICE), published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
The study, which paves the way for new personalized therapies that could modify the history of the disease, involved 34 centers throughout Italy, for a total of 263 patients followed over a 10-year period, and made it possible to identify different risk factors and biomarkers that predict the likelihood of chronic epileptic seizures.
"The data show that this happens in 44% of patients affected by an autoimmune attack on the central nervous system but above all that", in 8 out of 10 patients, "the risk of subsequent epilepsy increases if acute seizures are resistant to therapy despite a high number of anti-crisis drugs. used to control episodes, if specific antibodies directed against neurons are not present and if immunotherapy is ineffective in the acute phase of the disease also due to a delay in its administration ", explains Flavio Villani, director of the Neurophysiopathology Unit of the San Martino Polyclinic and coordinator of the project.
"Promptly recognizing these patients at risk - pointed out Villani - is fundamental, because in this way the initiation of immunotherapy can be accelerated by reducing the risk of permanent brain damage that can lead to chronic, irreversible and difficult to manage epilepsy".
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