الفهرس 
Obesity and its Relation To Insulin and LeptinOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: Valproic acid (VPA) has a broad spectrum of anticonvulsant activity. However, weight gain is the most common side-effect of VPA Furthermore, it is well established that weight gain and obesity are associated with an increase in patients cardiovascular risk and increased noncompliance or therapy interruption. the present study is focused on weight gain observed with antiepileptic drugs and its relation to leptin and insulin hormones
Objective: The aim of this work is to assess potential use of (insulin and leptin) level as risk predictors of weight gain in long term treatment with valproate in epileptic patients.
Subjects & Methods: This study was carried out on 80 subjects were divided into two groups .group 1: 40 epileptic patients on VAP monotheraby and group 2: 40 epileptic patients as control on antiepileptic drugs as monotherapy other than VAP. where leptin, insulin levels and BMI were measured in both groups.
Results: There was high statistically significant difference in leptin hormone between both groups being higher in group 1 . There was a highly significant correlation between leptin level and sex (show higher level in females than males) unlike insulin is insignificant. The best cut off point for leptin level in prediction of weight gain with valproate was found > 1.8 ng/ml with sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 37.9% and area under curve (AUC) 70%.
Conclusion: VPA-treated patients have higher serum leptin concentrations relative to BMI indicating that the increased serum leptin levels are not only a consequence of obesity but it could be drug induced so serum leptin may serve as a sensitive parameter for the related adverse weight changes .This may allow proper selection of suitable antiepileptic medication as initial step during management and follow up of patients.