[Villous atrophy and idiopathic epilepsy]

Reports of an association between epilepsy and coeliac disease (CD) are not new. Chapmann reported a prevalence of epilepsy in CD of 5.5% and accepted a figure of 0.5% for the community. Prevalence of coeliac disease among epileptic patients is not well established. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of CD in epileptic patients for this 49 epileptic patients (31 male and 28 female) were selected between January 96 et June 99 to underwent fibroscopy with intestinal biopsy. Anti body to gluten were measured in most patients. The patients with villous atrophy underwent cranial computed tomography. 4 of 49 patients (8.1%) were identified as having coeliac disease on the basis of a flat intestinal mucosa with increasing of LIE. 2 among this 4 patients had recurrent diarrhea. Any patient showed cerebral calcification associated with epilepsy and CD. Only one patient among 4, followed a gluten free-diet with a significant reduction in seizure frequency. This suggest that CD should be ruled out in all case of epilepsy of unexplained origin.