Epilepsy Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Jefferson Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, Department of Neurology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Neurol Sci. 2021 Jun;42(6):2421-2424. doi: 10.1007/s10072-020-04834-3. Epub 2020 Oct 19.
We compared the demographic, clinical, and electroencephalographic (EEG) characteristics between females and males with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE).
In this retrospective study, all patients with a clinical diagnosis of IGE were recruited at the outpatient epilepsy clinic at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, from 2008 through 2019. Age, gender, age at seizure onset, seizure type(s), epilepsy risk factors, and EEG findings of all patients were registered routinely.
Six hundred one patients with IGE were studied: 361 patients (60%) were females, and 240 people (40%) were males. The mean age at onset of seizures was 1.3 years earlier in males compared with that in females. Myoclonic seizures were more frequently reported by females than that by males. Photoparoxysmal response during intermittent photic stimulation in the EEG laboratory was more often observed in females than that in males. The difference in the syndromic diagnosis between the sexes was significant (p = 0.02). Among male patients, 88% were on valproate, and among female patients, 49% were on valproate (p = 0.0001). At the last follow-up visit, 83 males (61%) and 108 females (49%) were seizure-free (p = 0.02).
There are significant demographic, clinical, and electrographic differences between females and males with IGEs. The reasons behind these sex differences among patients with IGE are not clear. However, it is likely that sex hormones and sex chromosome genes-related brain differences play a role in the development of these differences. These interesting findings and the proposed hypothesis should be explored in future studies.
我们比较了特发性全面性癫痫（IGE）女性和男性患者的人口统计学、临床和脑电图（EEG）特征。
在这项回顾性研究中，我们在 2008 年至 2019 年期间，从设拉子医科大学门诊癫痫诊所招募了所有临床诊断为 IGE 的患者。常规记录所有患者的年龄、性别、发病年龄、癫痫发作类型、癫痫危险因素和 EEG 结果。
我们研究了 601 名 IGE 患者：361 名（60%）为女性，240 名（40%）为男性。男性癫痫发作的平均发病年龄比女性早 1.3 岁。女性比男性更常报告肌阵挛性癫痫发作。在 EEG 实验室进行间歇性光刺激时，女性比男性更常出现光惊反射。性别的综合征诊断差异具有统计学意义（p=0.02）。在男性患者中，88%的患者使用丙戊酸钠，而在女性患者中，49%的患者使用丙戊酸钠（p=0.0001）。在最后一次随访时，83 名男性（61%）和 108 名女性（49%）无癫痫发作（p=0.02）。
IGE 女性和男性患者在人口统计学、临床和脑电图方面存在显著差异。IGE 患者中存在这些性别差异的原因尚不清楚。然而，性激素和性染色体基因相关的大脑差异可能在这些差异的发展中起作用。这些有趣的发现和提出的假设应该在未来的研究中进行探索。
