[Epilepsy and mitochondrial diseases: retrospective study on 53 epileptic children]

Mitochondrial disease is a heterogeneous disorder entity induced by defects in the mitochondrial respiratory chain complex. Neurological symptoms, including epilepsy, are common in children. The aim of this study was to research the clinical signs indicating mitochondrial disease.

We retrospectively studied epileptic children who underwent a muscle and/or hepatic biopsy between 1995 and 2010 searching for a mitochondrial disease. Patients were separated into 2 groups depending on the biopsy result: group 1 (presence of mitochondrial disease) and group 2 (absence of mitochondrial disease). Epileptic phenotypes were compared between these 2 groups. In group 1, we specified the clinical phenotype and characterized mitochondrial disease.

Fifty-three children were included: 29 in group 1 and 24 in group 2. The average age at onset of epilepsy was 39.6 months in group 1 versus 11.8 months in group 2. In the 1st group, epilepsy was less refractory and associated with other clinical symptoms.

In this study, epilepsy did not appear to be a unique sign of mitochondrial disease. It most often appeared during the 2nd year of life and is correlated with multiorgan involvement, notably ophthalmologic, such as oculomotor apraxia, optic atrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa, as well as auditory (deafness) and hepatic (hepatic failure, hepatomegaly). On the other hand, in children who did not have mitochondrial disease, epilepsy often began earlier (before 3 months of age), it was refractory, isolated without multiorgan involvement, and seems to be due to genetic anomalies in developmental genes, a finding that requires further research.