Maternal infections may predispose fetus to epilepsy

Community Practitioner,  July, 2008  by June Thompson

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Sun Y, Vestergaard M, Christensen J, Nahmias AJ, Olsen J. Prenatal exposure to maternal infections and epilepsy in childhood: a population-based cohort study. Pediatrics, 2008; doi:10.1542/peds.2007-2316 (1 May 2008).

Prenatal exposure to some maternal infections is associated with an increased risk for epilepsy in early childhood, a Danish study has found.

Epilepsy, a condition characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures, affects 1% of the population before the age of 20 however, less than 20% of these cases have a known cause. Maternal infections during pregnancy have been associated with an increased risk for cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and schizophrenia, but whether maternal infections play a role in the risk for epilepsy is unclear.

To explore the association between specific infections during pregnancy and the risk for epilepsy in childhood, researchers used data from a population-based birth cohort in Denmark 90619 singletons born between September 1997 and June 2003 and followed them up to December 2005. Information on maternal infections during pregnancy was collected prospectively from mothers. It was found prenatal exposure to maternal cystitis, pyelonephritis, persistent diarrhoea, coughs, and vaginal yeast infection was associated with an increased risk for epilepsy in early childhood.

If some of these associations are causal, then they could be related to the infection itself or to its consequences, such as change in diet or dehydration, and possibly to its treatment, conclude the authors, and additional investigation is warranted.

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