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Abstract Epilepsy is the third most common chronic brain disorder. Despite progress in pharmacological and surgical treatments of epilepsy, relatively little is known about the processes leading to the generation of individual seizures, and about the mechanisms whereby a healthy brain is rendered epileptic. These gaps in our knowledge hamper the development of better preventive treatments and cures for the 30% of epilepsy cases that prove resistant to current therapies. In recent years, an increasing body of evidence has indicated that there is a complex relationship between epilepsy and the immune system. Abnormalities in expression of cytokines and immune cells have been observed in patients with epilepsy and in animal models. Moreover, epileptogenesis which can be defined as persistent brain changes leading to spontaneous seizures, is thought to comprise complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Recently, the role of inflammation has attracted great attention in the pathophysiology of epileptogenesis with subsequent activation of innate immune mechanisms that leads to persistence of an uncontrolled inflammatory state in the brain. This study prospectively examined 40 patients with TLE, half of which are refractory TLE, from Ain-Shams University Hospital and Ain-Shams University Specialized Hospital to identify the role of inflammation in intractable temporal lobe epilepsy through detection of cytokine level in serum of patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy and to asses the pattern of cytokine response in relation to long term effects of seizure frequency, Summary 128 seizure type and duration of epilepsy in intractable temporal lobe epilepsy. We measured the plasma level of IL-6 at baseline for all patients participating in the study as well as 20 healthy volunteers and within 24h after seizure in the refractory group. We found that the baseline IL-6 was significantly high in epileptic patients compared to healthy volunteers. We also found that there was a significant rise in the plasma level of IL-6 in the 24 hours postictally (mean= 61.4 pg/ml) compared to the baseline serum level (mean= 25.3 pg/ml). Patients with controlled TLE had higher level of baseline IL-6 (mean= 46.3 pg/ml) compared to patients in the refractory group (mean= 25.3 pg/ml) but not statistically significant. The level of IL-6 after motor seizure (simple motor and hypermotor) tend to be significantly high compared to non motor seizures (dialeptic and autonomic). Also patients who experienced motor seizures had significantly higher mean baseline IL-6 compared to patients with non motor seizures. We found that the postictal IL-6 was significantly high in patients with long standing duration of illness (more than 5 years) compared to patients within duration of illness less than 5 years. But we didn`t find significant association between the baseline IL-6 and the duration of illness. Summary 129 Also we didn`t find a significant association between the frequency of seizures and the baseline IL-6 levels. Lastly there was no significant association between the baseline IL-6 and the lateralization of the epileptic focus in the EEG. |