PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Wang, Wei
AU  - Wu, Yanchuan
AU  - Li, Xiaoling
AU  - Li, Lin
AU  - Sun, Ke
AU  - Yan, Suying
TI  - Altered plasma glutamate and glutamine levels in patients with drug-resistant and drug-responsive symptomatic focal epilepsy
AID  - 10.17712/nsj.2021.4.20210041
DP  - 2021 Oct 01
TA  - Neurosciences Journal
PG  - 315--322
VI  - 26
IP  - 4
4099  - http://nsj.org.sa/content/26/4/315.short
4100  - http://nsj.org.sa/content/26/4/315.full
SO  - Neurosciences (Riyadh)2021 Oct 01; 26
AB  - Objectives: To compare the levels of plasma glutamate and glutamine in drug-resistant or drug-responsive symptomatic focal epilepsy. Dysfunctional glutamate neurotransmission plays an essential role in epilepsy pathophysiology.Methods: This cross-sectional study included 80 drug-resistant and 42 drug-responsive symptomatic focal epileptic patients and 132 healthy controls from June 2017 to February 2018. Plasma glutamate and glutamine levels were assessed via high-performance liquid chromatography.Results: Patients with drug-resistant symptomatic focal epilepsy had significantly higher plasma glutamate levels than healthy controls, whereas those with the drug-responsive disease had higher plasma glutamine levels than healthy controls. These results indicate that plasma glutamate and glutamine levels can discriminate patients with drug-resistant and drug-responsive symptomatic focal epilepsy from control individuals with the areas under the curve values of 0.931 and 0.72, respectively.Conclusion: Elevated plasma glutamate levels are associated with drug-resistant symptomatic focal epilepsy and may aid the diagnosis of drug-resistant symptomatic focal epilepsy.