• Anelia Dietmann, Bernd Wallner, Rebekka König, Katrin Friedrich, Bettina Pfausler, Florian Deisenhammer, Andrea Griesmacher, Christoph Seger, William Matuja, Louise JilekAall, Andrea S Winkler, and Erich Schmutzhard.
• Department of Neurology, Medical University Innsbruck, Austria.
• Afr Health Sci. 2014 Jun 1; 14 (2): 434-8.

BackgroundNodding 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.MethodsSera 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.ResultsAuto-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.ConclusionsIn 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.

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