A prevalence study of epilepsy in

Objectives. To examine epidemiological data on epilepsy for the Hong Kongwest region.Design. Descriptive study.Setting. Epilepsy clinic, university teaching hospital, Hong Kong.Patients and methods. The epilepsy clinic of Queen Mary Hospital managesthe majority of adult patients (aged 15 years or older) with chronic seizure disordersresident in the Hong Kong west area with an adult population of 475 900. Allpatients underwent electroencephalography examination and each subject wasindependently assessed by two epileptologists for diagnosis and classifiedaccording to the International League Against Epilepsy recommendations.Results. Seven hundred and thirty-six patients (female, 42.9%; male, 57.1%;mean age, 40.8 years; standard deviation, 13.6 years) with epilepsy were enrolledin the study. The prevalence rate of active epilepsy in the population 15 years orolder was estimated at 1.54 per 1000 on 1 January 2002. Two hundred and eighty-five (38.7%) patients had idiopathic epilepsy syndromes, 100 (13.6%) hadcryptogenic epilepsy, and 285 (38.7%) had a remote symptomatic aetiology.Seizure type was partial in 408 (55.4%) patients and generalised in 285 (38.7%).Thirty-one (4.2%) patients had a positive family history. Idiopathic generalisedepilepsy syndromes described as common in the literature, such as juvenilemyoclonic epilepsy and childhood absence epilepsy, were infrequently seen at0.68% and 0.95% of cases, respectively.Conclusions. This study provides baseline data for epilepsy service developmentand research in Hong Kong. The prevalence rate of active epilepsy in this Chinese,adult population was low compared with that reported in other developedcountries. Further population-based epidemiological research is indicated toconfirm the prevalence of seizure disorders in this locality.