Seroepidemiological study of Toxoplasma gondii infection in a population of Iranian epileptic patients

Authors

  • Jalal Babaie Department of Parasitology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
  • Mohammad Sayyah Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
  • Kourosh Gharagozli Department of Neurology, Loghman Hakim Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • Ehsan Mostafavi Research Centre for Emerging and Reemerging infectious diseases, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran; Department of Epidemiology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
  • Majid Golkar Department of Parasitology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2016-858

Keywords:

epilepsy, Toxoplasma gondii, IgG, ELISA, seroprevalence

Abstract

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurologic disorders. Underlying cause of epilepsy is unknown in 60 % of the patients. Toxoplasma gondii is an intracellular parasite which is capable of forming tissue cysts in brain of chronically infected hosts including humans. Some epidemiological studies suggested an association between toxoplasmosis and acquisition of epilepsy. In this study we determined seroprevalence of latent Toxoplasma infection in a population of Iranian epileptic patients. Participants were classified in three groups as Iranian epileptic patients (IEP, n = 414), non-epileptic patients who had other neurologic disorders (NEP, n = 150), and healthy people without any neurologic disorders (HP, n = 63). The presence of anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies and IgG titer in the sera were determined by ELISA method. Anti-T. gondii IgG seroprevalence obtained 35.3 %, 34.7 % and 38.1 % in IEP, NEP and HP, respectively. The seroprevalence rate was not significantly different among the three groups (P = 0.88). Anti-T. gondii IgG titer was 55.7 ± 78, 52.4 ± 74 and 69.7 ± 92 IU/ml in IEP, NEP and HP, respectively. There was not any statistically significant difference in the antibody titer between the study groups (P = 0.32). The rate of T. gondii infection in epileptic patients was not higher than non-epileptic patients and healthy people in the Iranian population.

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Published

2017-03-13

How to Cite

Babaie, J., Sayyah, M., Gharagozli, K., Mostafavi, E., & Golkar, M. (2017). Seroepidemiological study of Toxoplasma gondii infection in a population of Iranian epileptic patients. EXCLI Journal, 16, 256–264. https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2016-858

Issue

Vol. 16 (2017)

Section

Original articles

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