Does valproate therapy in epileptic patients contribute to changing atherosclerosis risk factors? The role of lipids and free fatty acids.

BACKGROUND

We aimed to demonstrate the relationship between the valproate (VPA) treatment versus lipid and serum free fatty acids (FFAs) profiles to be the potential atherosclerosis risk factor in epileptic patients.

METHODS

Fasting blood samples were taken from 21 adult VPA-treated patients and 21 controls. The profiles of lipids, FFAs, clinical parameters and body mass index (BMI) were evaluated.

RESULTS

No significant differences between the study group and controls were found for any of the studied parameters. However, significant differences in the total cholesterol (CHOL), low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), triglycerides, the CHOL/HDL (high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol) ratio, and Atherogenic Index of Plasma were observed for overweight patients when compared to those of normal weight. Patients with uncontrolled epilepsy tended to have significantly lower palmitic acid level than seizure-free patients. Oleic acid was found to be positively correlated with VPA concentration for patients with uncontrolled epilepsy, and with the dose corrected VPA concentration for all the patients. The acid was however negatively correlated with stearic acid for both the controls and the patients with uncontrolled epilepsy. PLS method revealed CHOL, LDL, triglycerides and myristic acid to be positively interrelated for the whole group under the study, whereas these parameters were found to be negatively correlated with VPA concentration, and positively with BMI. Furthermore, high sensitivity C-reactive protein was found to be negatively correlated with palmitic acid levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Overweight VPA-treated patients are exposed to higher risk of atherosclerosis. Alterations in FFAs are likely to depend on seizures control, and on VPA levels.