15 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Elastic characteristics of aorta in patients with epilepsy Namık Ozmen 1 , Mehmet Senol Guney 2 , Erdem Togrul 2 , Omer Yiginer 1 , Mustafa Aparci 1 , Ejder Kardes- oglu 1 , Yılmaz Cingozbay 1 , Mehmet Saracoglu 1 , Bekir Sitki Cebeci 1 1 Department of Cardiology, 2 Department of Neurology; GMMA Haydarpasa Trainning Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey Correpanding author: Namık Ozmen GATA Haydarpaşa Eğitim Hastanesi Kardiyoloji Servisi 34668 Kadıkoy Istanbul, Turkey Phone: + 216 542 20 20/ 3485; fax: + 216 3454881 E-mail: drnamikozmen@yahoo.com Original submission: 04 January 2010; Revised submission: 14 March 2010; Accepted: 08 April 2010. ABSTRACT Aim To investigate elastic characteristics of the aorta in patients with epilepsy. Methods Seventy ive patients with a diagnosis of epilepsy throu- gh clinical and EEG indings and age and sex matched, 50 healthy controls were included. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures plus systolic and diastolic diameter of the aortic root was measured. Aortic strain (AS) and aortic distensibility (AD) and aortic disten- sibility index (BSI) were calculated. Results The average age of the epilepsy group was 23.8.8 ± 8.2 years, and of the control group it was 24.1± 6.2 years (p>0.05). AS and AD were lower in the epileptic group while the aortic stiffness index was higher (10.4± 4.2 vs 16.9±0.2, p: 0.001, for AS; 8.7± 4.0 vs 17.2±0.1, p: 0.001, for AD and 20.1±0.1 vs 3.5±1.2, p: 0.001 for BSI). Conclusion Elastic characteristics of the aorta change in epileptic patients, with a decrease of the distensibility of the aorta and an in- crease of the stiffness. After this preliminary study, new controlled studies are needed. Key words: Epilepsy, aortic stifness, atherosclerosis Med Glas Ljek komore Zenicko-doboj kantona 2011; 8(1):15-18