Atherogenic Risk Factors among Young Indian Adults with Epilepsy on Treatment with Phenytoin: Need for Novel Therapeutic Strategies

Background: Risk for the development of coronary heart disease and diabetes is found to be more among people with epilepsy especially when on treatment. Redox imbalance contributes to this risk especially in India as it is the diabetic capital of the world with higher prevalence of inflammation. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate atherogenic risk factors; dyslipidemia, oxidative stress, and systemic inflammation among young Indian adults with epilepsy on treatment with Phenytoin. Material and Methods: Three groups of age and gender-matched young subjects were recruited. Group 1-Healthy control subjects, Group 2- Newly diagnosed epileptic young adults with recent epileptic seizures, Group 3- Epileptic adults on treatment with Phenytoin for more than 6 months were recruited. Results: Dyslipidemia was found among the newly diagnosed epileptic subjects in comparison to healthy subjects. The LDL-cholesterol further increased, and HDL-cholesterol further decreased in the third group treated with Phenytoin. Body mass index of these treated epileptic subjects was more in comparison to healthy control. Low-grade inflammation as assessed by hsCRP and oxidative stress were significantly higher among the newly diagnosed epileptic subjects when compared to the healthy controls which further increased on treatment with phenytoin. We found dyslipidemia, oxidative stress, and low-grade inflammation among newly diagnosed epileptic subjects which further increased on treatment with Phenytoin for more than 6 months. Conclusion: From this study, we conclude that dyslipidemia, oxidative stress and low-grade inflammation are identified among the newly diagnosed young adult Indian epileptic patients. Phenytoin treatment further augmented these complications.