Abstract
In order to study whether associations exist between HLA antigens and epilepsy, HLA-A, B, and C antigens were determined in 257 patients with epilepsy.
HLA antigens of the A, B and C locus were evaluated in 110 controls with no history of epilepsy or febrile convulsion. Epileptic patients were classified following the International Classification of ILAE: partial seizures (N=144)[partial seizures with elementary symptomatology (N=32), partial seizures with complex symptomatology (N=14), partial seizures secondarily generalized (N=98)], primary generalized epilepsy (N=56)[absence seizures (N=27), generalized tonic clonic, clonic, or tonic seizures (N=29)], secondary generalized epilepsy (N=27), hemiconvulsion (N=13) and unclassified seizures (N=17). Six HLA-A, 17 HLA-B, and 4 HLA-C antigens were defined using the standard NIHTerasaki microlymphocytotoxity test. The most of typing sera were qualified for their specificities in the Japanese and the International Histocompatibility Workshop. Relative risks and difference in HLA antigens between patients and controls were calculated by chi-square analysis and P values were corrected by multiplying P by the number of antigens tested (Pc).
Among number of antigens tested, the phenotype frequency of Bw 60 was increased in patients with several seizure types and in patients with epilepsy as a whole. Bw 60 was found in 35.4% of all the epileptic patients (X2=20.1, Pc<0.001), in 38.8% of the patients with partial seizures secondarily generalized (X2=20.35, Pc<O.001), in 40.7% of the patients with absence seizures (X2=12.55, Pc<0.02), in 40.7% of the patients with secondary generalized epilepsy (X2=12.55, Pc<0.002), compared with 11.8% of the control and showed relative risks of 4.1, 4.7, 5.1 and 5.1 respectively.
This investigation showed that HLA Bw 60 may be a marker of genetic characteristic which seems to have some precipitating effects on the manifestation of epileptic seizures.
