Table 5.
Multivariate analysis of clinical and laboratory variables at enrollment and occurrence of seizures regardless of attribution. The total numbers of first seizures for Analysis I–IV are 70, 20, 20 and 25, respectively*.
| Predictor | Analysis I | Analysis II | Analysis III | Analysis IV | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HR** (95% CI) | p-value | HR (95% CI) | p-value | HR (95% CI) | p-value | HR (95% CI) | p-value | |
|
| ||||||||
| Female gender | 0.61 (0.32,1.15) | 0.13 | 0.88 (0.25,3.04) | 0.84 | 1.10 (0.32,3.82) | 0.88 | 1.35 (0.39,4.62) | 0.64 |
| Race/Ethnicity | 0.03 | 0.24 | 0.57 | 0.43 | ||||
| Caucasian | ||||||||
| Asian | 0.47 (0.18,1.23) | Not estimable | Not estimable | Not estimable | ||||
| African | 1.97 (1.07, 3.63) | 3.05 (0.99,9.45) | 2.12 (0.67,6.68) | 1.86 (0.67,5.14) | ||||
| Hispanic | 1.56 (0.80, 3.04) | 1.82 (0.48,6.95) | 1.32 (0.33,5.34) | 1.11 (0.34,3.66) | ||||
| Other | 1.34 (0.41,4.42) | 1.13 (0.28,4.61) | 0.98 (0.23,4.09) | 0.68 (0.20,2.34) | ||||
| Lack of post- secondary education | 1.96 (1.21, 3.19) | <0.01 | 4.55 (1.68,12.33) | <0.01 | 4.07 (1.50,11.07) | <0.01 | 3.05 (1.31,7.10) | <0.01 |
| Age at diagnosis* | ||||||||
| Linear | 0.83 (0.63, 1.09) | 0.09 | 0.91 (0.53,1.57) | 0.92 | 0.93 (0.53,1.63) | 0.96 | 0.93 (0.57,1.52) | 0.95 |
| Quadratic | 1.21 (1.02,1.44) | 0.99 (0.67,1.46) | 1.00 (0.68,1.49) | 0.99 (0.67,1.45) | ||||
| SDI score (w/o NP variables) | 0.03 | 0.07 | ||||||
| 0 | ||||||||
| 1 | 3.93 (1.46,10.55) | 3.36 (1.26,9.02) | ||||||
| 2 or 3 | 1.57 (0.32,7.65) | 1.22 (0.25,5.95) | ||||||
| ≥4 | 7.86 (0.89,69.06) | 5.22 (0.58,46.70) | ||||||
| Medications | 0.04 | 0.01 | ||||||
| Corticosteroids | 9.01 (1.14,71.44) | 5.87 (1.29,26.70) | ||||||
| Antimalarials | 0.07 (0.01,0.66) | 0.10 (0.02,0.50) | ||||||
| Immunosuppressants | 0.39 (0.11,1.43) | 0.46 (0.15,1.39) | ||||||
| Interaction (Antimalarials, Immunosuppressants) | 13.85 (1.21,158.05) | 8.56 (1.33,55.16) | ||||||
*
The number of patients included in Analysis I was reduced to 70 due to missing data on 5 patients for post-secondary education status. In Analysis II and III the number was reduced to 20 because of the small number of SDI scores available due either to the inability to compute scores at the enrollment visit in patients with disease duration < 6 months or the occurrence of seizures prior to the enrollment visit.
**
Hazard ratio
***
Age at diagnosis was standardized by taking (Age at diagnosis-35)/14.