METHOD: Cross-sectional study of ambulant children with epilepsy on long-term AEDs for >1 year seen in a tertiary hospital in Malaysia from 2014 to 2015. Detailed assessment of anthropometric measurements; environmental lifestyle risk factors; serum vitamin D, calcium and parathyroid hormone levels; genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms of genes in vitamin D and calcium metabolism; and lumbar spine BMD were obtained. Low BMD was defined as BMD Z-score ≤ -2.0 SD.
RESULTS: Eighty-seven children with mean age of 11.9 years (56 males) participated in the study. The prevalence of low lumbar BMD was 21.8% (19 patients). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified polytherapy >2 AEDs (OR: 7.86; 95% CI 1.03-59.96), small frame size with wrist breadth of <15th centile (OR 14.73; 95% CI 2.21-98.40), and body mass index Z-score 2 AEDs, underweight or with small frame size as they are at higher risk of having low BMD.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: To examine this hypothesis, in the present study, the associations between CYP3A5 variants (rs776746 and rs1419745) and response to carbamazepine and valproic acid monotherapy in Malaysian epileptic patients were evaluated.
RESULTS: A total of 288 Malaysian epileptic patients were recruited and further reviewed, of whom 63 patients were on carbamazepine monotherapy, and 85 patients were on valproic acid monotherapy. There was no patient with drug hypersensitivity syndrome within the population. Subjects were genotyped by using Sequenom MassARRAY platform. This study found a significant association of CYP3A5 rs776746 with the carbamazepine treatment response in total patients (p = 0.026) and Malay ethnic subgroup (p = 0.006). In addition, a marginal significant association of CYP3A5 rs1419745 with carbamazepine treatment response was reported in the Malays. Similarly, CYP3A5 rs776746 was associated with valproic acid response in total patients (p = 0.037) and Malays (marginal p = 0.05).
CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that CYP3A5 polymorphisms affect carbamazepine and valproic acid response in Malaysian epileptic patients.