Children who have an ischemic stroke have a greater chance of developing epilepsy later in life, according to new data published in Stroke.
Using data from the Swedish National Registers, researchers identified 1,220 children 18 years of age or younger who had a pediatric ischemic stroke between 1969 and 2016 and were alive seven days after the stroke. All patients included in the study had no prior history of epilepsy.
Outcomes from this group were then compared with another cohort of more than 12,000 age- and sex-matched children with no history of stroke.
Overall, 18% of patients developed epilepsy after stroke compared with just 0.7% of the control group. These young stroke patients appeared to face an elevated risk of epilepsy that was at its peak in the first six months following the stroke. That risk, however, remained high for up to 20 years.
In addition, the cumulative incidence of epilepsy after ischemic stroke in children increased with follow-up years; it was 11.9% at five years and 26.4% at 30 years.
Among young patients who had a perinatal ischemic stroke, the authors added, 24.2% were diagnosed with epilepsy. In the control group, that number was just 0.9%.
Overall, this increased risk of epilepsy was seen in all calendar periods.
“The risk of epilepsy was highest during the first six months but remained elevated even 20 years after stroke, which should be taken into account in future planning for children affected by stroke,” wrote Heléne E.K. Sundelin, MD, PhD, with the department of women’s and children’s health at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden, and colleagues. “To the best of our knowledge, this study of 338 individuals with perinatal ischemic stroke is the largest so far examining the risk of future epilepsy in this age group."
Read the full study here.