Elsevier

Seizure

Volume 23, Issue 5, May 2014, Pages 377-381
Seizure

Patients with epilepsy are at an increased risk of subsequent stroke: A population-based cohort study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seizure.2014.02.007Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Abstract

Purpose

Epilepsy is well known as a disorder in poststroke patients. However, studies that have investigated the association between epilepsy and the risk of subsequent stroke are limited. This population-based study investigated the incidence and risk of stroke in patients with epilepsy by using the Taiwan National Health Insurance claims data.

Methods

We identified 3812 patients newly diagnosed with epilepsy in 2000–2008 and 15,248 nonepilepsy comparisons frequency matched according to sex, age, and index year. We searched for subsequent stroke diagnoses in both cohorts until the end of 2009. The incidence rates and hazard ratios of stroke were estimated based on sex, age, the average defined daily doses (DDDs) of antiepilepsy drugs, and comorbidity.

Results

The stroke incidence of the epilepsy cohort was 3-fold higher than that of the comparison cohort. The age-specific results indicated that in the epilepsy cohort and the comparison cohort, the risk was the highest for the youngest group (20–39 years).

Conclusion

The patients with epilepsy exhibited a higher incidence of cerebral stroke than the general population did. In addition, younger patients with epilepsy and patients who took a high doses of antiepileptic drugs exhibited a high risk of stroke.

Keywords

Comorbidity
Epilepsy
Stroke
Insurance claims data
Retrospective cohort study

Cited by (0)

1

Both authors contributed equally.