Increased bacterial antibody titres and IgA deficiency in epileptic patients.

Twenty eight Norwegian patients with epilepsy (16 male and 12 female patients, aged 10-50) were examined. All had been treated with phenytoin for at least a year, seven of them in combination with carbamazepine, phenobarbitone, or clonazepam. Four patients suffered from primary generalised tonic-clonic seizures, and 24 suffered from partial seizures. None had febrile convulsions. The causes of the epilepsy were perinatal brain lesions (12 patients), head injury (two patients), genetic predisposition (two patients), and unknown (12 patients). The 28 healthy controls were matched for age, sex, race, and geographical location.' Titres of antibodies to several bacterial antigens' were measured by standard techniques. The results were considered to be positive when above the 98th percentile for a healthy Finnish population (see table).2 Serum IgA, IgG, and IgM