Assessment of Bone Mineral Density by DEXA Scan in Seventy Five Epileptic Patients

Epilepsy and antiepileptic drugs can influence bone metabolism leading to different grades of disturbance in bone mineral density (BMD). Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) is a non invasive reliable method of detecting bone mineralization defects. In this study we investigated bone health in 75 epileptic patients using DEXA scan at 4 points of the skeleton. They were 32 males and 43 female, their mean age was 26.74 years and mean disease duration was 5.78 years. Sixty eight patients were on mono antiepileptic drug therapy. Fifty two percent of the patients showed evidence of abnormal BMD. Eighteen percent of them showed evidence of osteoporosis or severe osteopenia. The BMD changes at different sites in adult group were 50, 46.7, 26.6 and 21.3% in lumbar spine, left wrist, left right hips respectively. In adolescent group (13 cases below 20), 8 cases (61%) showed abnormal BMD in lumbar spine. There were no significant correlations between the age, sex distribution, type of therapy or the disease duration and the development of bone mineral-ization defects. Different grades of bone mineralization defects can occur in epileptic patients on antiepileptic drugs regardless the age of the patients, duration of disease or the type of medications. DEXA scan helps to pick up those patients and allow for planning of their further management.