Early Predictors of Drug-Resistant Epilepsy Development after Convulsive Status Epilepticus

Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is a common and serious consequence of convulsive status epilepticus (CSE). Little is known on the early prediction of DRE development after CSE. Our aim was to identify independent DRE predictors in patients with CSE.

One hundred and forty consecutive patients identified with CSE in a tertiary academic hospital between March 2008 and January 2015 were reviewed. Demographics, clinical features, serum albumin neuroimaging, and electroencephalogram characteristics were collected and analyzed. Independent predictors of DRE were identified using multivariate logistic regression. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to quantify the predictive validity of all the risk factors.

After a median 62-month observation period, 91 patients were enrolled into this study. Thirty-seven (40.7%) patients did not have DRE, 22 (24.2%) developed DRE, and 32 (35.2%) were dead. History of epilepsy (OR 9.17, 95% CI 1.77-49.22, p = 0.010), status epilepticus duration ≥24 h (OR 4.82, 95% CI 1.04-22.37, p = 0.044), and cortical or hippocampal abnormalities on neuroimaging (OR 9.49, 95% CI 1.90-47.50, p = 0.006) were independent predictors of DRE after CSE. A combination of these 3 variables yielded an area under the ROC curve of 0.77 (0.65-0.89).

History of epilepsy, longer SE duration, and cortical or hippocampal abnormalities on neuroimaging are early predictors for the development of DRE after CSE. Further studies are needed to assess whether a more aggressive treatment will reduce the likelihood of DRE development in these high-risk patients.