An association between epileptic seizures and increased serum bacterial antibody levels.

Increased serum levels of a variety of bacterial antibodies were more common in unselected patients with recent epileptic seizures than in healthy control subjects (17/29 versus 2/31; p less than 0.001). In most of these cases no infections were recognized clinically or bacteriologically. Although infections have been considered as one of the possible provocations for the manifestation of epileptic seizures, the demonstrated strong association may give a new approach to the pathogenetic mechanisms of epileptic seizures or may mean a nonspecific immune response. The explanation for the higher antibody titers in epileptic patients and their etiologic significance are uncertain, but these results also suggest that epileptic seizures may very often be triggered by bacterial infections even when no clinically apparent bacterial infection has been recognized.