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. 2014 Jun;14(2):434-8.
doi: 10.4314/ahs.v14i2.20.

Nodding syndrome in Tanzania may not be associated with circulating anti-NMDA-and anti-VGKC receptor antibodies or decreased pyridoxal phosphate serum levels-a pilot study

Anelia Dietmann  1 , Bernd Wallner  1 , Rebekka König  1 , Katrin Friedrich  1 , Bettina Pfausler  1 , Florian Deisenhammer  1 , Andrea Griesmacher  2 , Christoph Seger  2 , William Matuja  3 , Louise JilekAall  4 , Andrea S Winkler  5 , Erich Schmutzhard  1
Affiliations

Nodding syndrome in Tanzania may not be associated with circulating anti-NMDA-and anti-VGKC receptor antibodies or decreased pyridoxal phosphate serum levels-a pilot study

Anelia Dietmann et al. Afr Health Sci. 2014 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Nodding syndrome (NS) is a seemingly progressive epilepsy disorder of unknown underlying cause. We investigated association of pyridoxal-phosphate serum levels and occurrence of anti-neuronal antibodies against N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor and voltage gated potassium channel (VGKC) complex in NS patients.

Methods: Sera of a Tanzanian cohort of epilepsy and NS patients and community controls were tested for the presence of anti-NMDA-receptor and anti-VGKC complex antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence assay. Furthermore pyridoxal-phosphate levels were measured.

Results: Auto-antibodies against NMDA receptor or VGKC (LG1 or Caspr2) complex were not detected in sera of patients suffering from NS (n=6), NS plus other seizure types (n=16), primary generalized epilepsy (n=1) and community controls without epilepsy (n=7). Median Pyridoxal-phosphate levels in patients with NS compared to patients with primary generalized seizures and community controls were not significantly different. However, these median pyridoxal-phosphate levels are significantly lower compared to the range considered normal in Europeans.

Conclusions: In this pilot study NS was not associated with serum anti-NMDA receptor or anti-VGKC complex antibodies and no association to pyridoxal-phosphate serum levels was found.

Keywords: anti-neuronal antibodies; epilepsy; nodding syndrome; pyridoxal-phosphate.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Serum pyridoxalphosphate levels of nodding syndrome (NS) patients, pimary generalized epilepsy patients (PGE) and community controls (CC). Boxes and whiskers, median and interquartile range. P not significant.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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