Ö. Doksöz, K. Çeleğen, O. Güzel, Ü. Yılmaz, U. Uysal, R. İşgüder, M. Çeleğen, et al. (2015). The Short-Term Effects of Ketogenic Diet on Cardiac Ventricular Functions in Epileptic Children. Pediatric neurology, 53(3), 233-237.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2015.06.009

PubMed 26302701

[Abstract]
OBJECTIVE: Our primary aim was to determine the short-term effects of a ketogenic diet on cardiac ventricular function in patients with refractory epilepsy.

METHODS: Thirty-eight drug-resistant epileptic patients who were treated with a ketogenic diet were enrolled in this prospective study. Echocardiography was performed on all patients before beginning the ketogenic diet and after the sixth month of therapy. Two-dimensional, M-mode, color flow, spectral Doppler, and pulsed-wave tissue Doppler imaging measurements were performed on all patients.

RESULTS: The median age of the 32 patients was 45.5 months, and 22 (57.8%) of them were male. Body weight, height, and body mass index increased significantly at the sixth month of therapy when compared with baseline values (P < 0.05). Baseline variables assessed by conventional M-mode echocardiography showed no significant difference at month 6 (P > 0.05). Doppler flow indices of mitral annulus and tricuspid annulus velocity of patients at baseline and month 6 showed no significant differences (P > 0.05). Tricuspid annular E/A ratio was lower at month 6 (P < 0.05). Although mitral annulus tissue Doppler imaging studies showed no significant difference (P > 0.05), there was a decrease in Ea velocity and Ea/Aa ratio gathered from tricuspid annulus at month 6 compared with baseline (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: A 6-month duration ketogenic diet does not impair left ventricular functions in children with refractory epilepsy; however, it may be associated with a right ventricular diastolic dysfunction.