Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Prevalence and predictors of seizure in patients with Alzheimer’s disease at a tertiary care center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Mohammed Alessa¹ , Shaden Alsugheir^2,3, Nouf Almutairi^2,3, Abdulaziz Alqahtani^2,3, Lina Alhumaid^2,3, Rahaf Alqahtani^2,4, Mohamed Eldigire Ahmed⁵

¹Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; ²King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Ministry of the National Guard-Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; ³College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; ⁴College of Pharmacy, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; ⁵Applied Statistics and Demography, University of Gezira, Wad Madani, Sudan.

For correspondence:- Mohammed Alessa Email: AlessaM@ksu.edu.sa Tel:+66504106182

Accepted: 22 October 2021 Published: 30 November 2021

Citation: Alessa M, Alsugheir S, Almutairi N, Alqahtani A, Alhumaid L, Alqahtani R, et al. Prevalence and predictors of seizure in patients with Alzheimer’s disease at a tertiary care center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Trop J Pharm Res 2021; 20(11):2381-2385 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v20i11.21

© 2021 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To assess the prevalence and predictors of seizures in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) at a Saudi tertiary hospital.

Methods: A retrospective, matched case-control study was conducted using the electronic medical records of patients with AD who had an unprovoked seizure, from October 2015 to May 2018.

Results: Nineteen cases and 195 controls were identified. Statistically significant risk factors for an unprovoked seizure in patients diagnosed with AD were hypertension (p = 0.001), autoimmune disease, stroke and TIA (p = 0.001). The multivariate logistic regression analysis identified hypertension (OR = 2.89; p = 0.009) and autoimmune disease (OR = 19.6; p = 0.045) as predictors of unprovoked seizure in AD patients.

Conclusion: The occurrence of unprovoked seizures is more likely in severe cases of AD. In addition, the risk of seizure in patients with AD increases with two co-morbid conditions, hypertension, and autoimmune disease. However, further studies are required to determine the underlying mechanism of the association between the two risk factors and AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Seizure, Incidence, Predictors, Risk factor