Measuring Levels of Some Vitamins in the Blood Serum of Children with Epilepsy

Abstract

   Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common debilitating neurological conditions among children in the world. vitamin D3, vitamin B12 and Folic acid levels are altered in patients with epilepsy, which may increase the likelihood of a seizure. Objective: To investigate the difference in serum vitamin D3, vitamin B12 and Folic acid (vitamin B9) levels between the control group and the patient group. Methods: Case-control study on 121 epileptic patients, aged from 2 months to 15 years, from the visitors of consult clinic in Babil hospital for maternity and children and Outpatient pediatricians clinics in AL-Hillah city and 58 healthy children with same age and sex. Venous blood withdrawn from patients and controls then serum levels of vitamin D3, vitamin B12, and Folic acid were measured, using ELIZA kits specific for each type of vitamins. Results: After obtaining the results of the ELASA test for each vitamin and a comparison between the group of epileptic children and the group of control, we found in this study the following: 1)vitamin D3 showed higher significant differences in patients than controls(P≤0.05);2) there was no significant differences between the two groups for vitamin B12 (P≤0.05) ,and 3)there was lower sig. difference  of patients group than control group(P≤0.05).