Objective: Small studies have shown an increased risk of allergic disease in children with epilepsy and many studies still showing a conflicting result. The mechanism of the relationship between allergic disease and seizures remain undetermined. Many hypotheses the release of inflammatory cytokines during the process of immune system response alter the blood-brain-barrier integrity and lead to neuronal inflammation which could constitute on epileptogenic focus. This study was commenced to investigate whether the allergic disease is associated with epilepsy.
Methods: We used data from the medical record in 2016-2019 in children aged 6 months-18 years old with epilepsy who were still in neither treatment nor already completing the treatment, along with the allergic history of food allergy, atopic dermatitis, insect bites reaction, drugs allergy, and asthma. A cross-sectional study with chi-square analyzation to analyze the relationship between allergic disease and epilepsy.
Results: From, 106 children with epilepsy, there were 21 children with allergic disease, with 4 of them is with a food allergy, 6 with allergic rhinitis, 7 with asthma, 1 with insect bite reaction and 3 with atopic dermatitis. The chi-square analysis shows a strong association between allergic disease and epilepsy (p = 0.002). From the bivariate model analysis, there was an association between epilepsy with food allergy (OR 4.219), allergic rhinitis (OR 2.344), asthma (OR 2.813), insect bite (OR 8.438) and atopic dermatitis (OR 1.875) even though it was not significant statistically.
Conclusion: There was a strong association between allergic disease with epilepsy.