Methods A total of 160 children who were diagnosed as epilepsy in Inner Mongolia Baogang Hospital from July 2016 to October 2018 were selected as research subjects, and they were randomly sorted into study group (n=80) and control group (n=80) by random digits table method. Their seizures were treated with sodium valproate combined with levetiracetam and sodium valproate alone, respectively. After 16 weeks of treatment, the effective rates of seizure disorder treatment and improvement of epileptiform discharge of electroencephalography were evaluated, and chi-square test was used for statistical comparison. Levels of serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, hyper sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and homocysteine (Hcy), and hematocrit (HCT) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and the levels of serum S-100β and HMGB-1 were detected before and after treatment. Paired-samples t test was used for intra-group comparison before and after treatment among the above indexes, independent-samples t test was used for inter-group comparison. Chi-square test was used to compare the rate of adverse reactions during treatment between two groups. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Inner Mongolia Baogang Hospital (Approval No. BG201606073), and all guardians of children signed the informed consent forms for clinical study. There were no significant differences between two groups in general clinical data, such as gender constituent ratio, age, course of disease, frequency of seizure disorder per year before treatment, incidence of epileptiform discharge of electroencephalography and constituent ratio of epileptiform discharge types before treatment, etc. (P>0.05).
Results ①The effective rate of seizure disorder treatment and improvement of epileptiform discharge of electroencephalography in study group were 92.5% (74/80) and 85.0% (68/80), respectively, which both were significantly higher than those in control group 68.8% (55/80) and 58.8% (47/80), and both the differences were statistically significant (χ2=14.444, 13.635; P<0.001). ②In study group, the levels of serum TNF-α, hs-CRP and Hcy, and HCT and ESR after treatment were (53.1±14.0) pg/mL, (5.0±2.5) mg/L, and (12.5±3.1) μmol/L, (38.1±5.1)% and (3.0±0.5) mm/h, respectively, which all were significantly lower than (107.9±17.8) pg/mL, (10.1±2.5) mg/L, (42.2±5.8) μmol/L, (45.3±4.5)% and (5.2±0.6) mm/h before treatment, and all the differences were statistically significant (t=21.644, 12.902, 40.393, 9.468, 25.194; P<0.001). In control group, the levels of serum TNF-α, hs-CRP and Hcy, and HCT and ESR after treatment were (60.6±17.8) pg/mL, (8.2±2.2) mg/L, (15.2±3.1) μmol/L, (40.2±3.4)% and (4.5±0.6) mm/h, respectively, which all were significantly lower than (112.4±14.3) pg/mL, (9.3±3.8) mg/L, (41.1±2.8) μmol/L, (44.6±5.5)% and (5.4±0.8) mm/h before treatment, and all the differences were statistically significant (t=20.292, 2.241, 55.456, 3.320, 8.050; P<0.05). After treatment, the above indexes in study group all were statistically lower than those in control group, and all the differences were statistically different (t=2.962, 8.595, 5.508, 3.064, 17.178; P<0.05). ③In study group, levels of serum S-100β and HMGB-1 after treatment were (0.65±0.38) μg/L and (5.3±2.4) μg/L respectively, which were significantly lower than those before treatment (0.91±0.32) μg/L and (8.1±2.0) μg/L, and both the differences were statistically significant (t=4.681, 8.020; P<0.001). In control group, levels of serum S-100β and HMGB-1 after treatment were (0.78±0.27) μg/L and (6.4±2.2) μg/L respectively, which were significantly lower than those before treatment (0.88±0.25) μg/L and (7.9±1.7) μg/L, and both the differences were statistically significant (t=2.431, P=0.016; t=4.826, P<0.001). After treatment, levels of serum S-100β and HMGB-1 in study group were significantly lower than those in control group, and both the differences were statistically significant (t=2.495, P=0.014; t=2.840, P=0.005). ④There was no significant difference between two groups in rate of adverse reactions, such as nausea, vomiting, anorexia, dizziness, drowsiness, liver and kidney injury during treatment (P>0.05).