Epilepsy as a Comorbidity in Polymyositis and Dermatomyositis—A Cross-Sectional Study

Ella Nissan, Abdulla Watad, Arnon D. Cohen, Kassem Sharif, Johnatan Nissan, Howard Amital, Ora Shovman and Nicola Luigi Bragazzi
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Ella Nissan: Department of Medicine ‘B’ & Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 5262000, Israel
Abdulla Watad: Department of Medicine ‘B’ & Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 5262000, Israel
Arnon D. Cohen: Chief Physician’s Office, Clalit Health Services, Tel Aviv 16250, Israel
Kassem Sharif: Department of Medicine ‘B’ & Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 5262000, Israel
Johnatan Nissan: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Howard Amital: Department of Medicine ‘B’ & Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 5262000, Israel
Ora Shovman: Department of Medicine ‘B’ & Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 5262000, Israel
Nicola Luigi Bragazzi: Laboratory for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (LIAM), Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 8, 1-9

Abstract: Polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM) are autoimmune-mediated multisystemic myopathies, characterized mainly by proximal muscle weakness. A connection between epilepsy and PM/DM has not been reported previously. Our study aim is to evaluate this association. A case–control study was conducted, enrolling a total of 12,278 patients with 2085 cases (17.0%) and 10,193 subjects in the control group (83.0%). Student’s t-test was used to evaluate continuous variables, while the chi-square test was applied for the distribution of categorical variables. Log-rank test, Kaplan–Meier curves and multivariate Cox proportional hazards method were performed for the analysis regarding survival. Of the studied 2085 cases, 1475 subjects (70.7%) were diagnosed with DM, and 610 patients (29.3%) with PM. Participants enrolled as cases had a significantly higher rate of epilepsy ( n = 48 [2.3%]) as compared to controls ( n = 141 [1.4%], p < 0.0005). Using multivariable logistic regression analysis, PM was found only to be significantly associated with epilepsy (OR 2.2 [95%CI 1.36 to 3.55], p = 0.0014), whereas a non-significant positive trend was noted in DM (OR 1.51 [95%CI 0.99 to 2.30], p = 0.0547). Our data suggest that PM is associated with a higher rate of epilepsy compared to controls. Physicians should be aware of this comorbidity in patients with immune-mediated myopathies.

Keywords: polymyositis; dermatomyositis; epilepsy; comorbidity; autoimmunity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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