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The utility of ketogenic diet therapy in the management of epileptic spasms: A systematic review and meta-analysis

2025· article· en· W4416396968 on OpenAlexafffund
Gabriella Yakemow, Stephanie Aleluya, Rajesh RamachandranNair, Kevin Jones, Jessie Cunningham, Myanca Rodrigues, Vann Chau, Suvasini Sharma, Puneet Jain, Robyn Whitney

Bibliographic record

VenueEpilepsy Research · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldMedicine
TopicDiet and metabolism studies
Canadian institutionsSt. Joseph’s Healthcare HamiltonSickKids FoundationHospital for Sick ChildrenUniversity of TorontoMcMaster University
FundersMcMaster University
KeywordsKetogenic dietEpilepsyMEDLINEAnticonvulsantClinical trialPharmacotherapy

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

OBJECTIVE: We systematically reviewed the existing literature on the efficacy of the ketogenic diet (KD) in patients with epileptic spasms (ES) and analyzed predictors of seizure outcomes. METHODS: The Preferred Report Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients achieving 50-99 % spasm reduction at 3 months following KD initiation. Additional outcomes included the proportion of patients achieving complete spasm freedom at 1, 3, and 6 months. Meta-regression was employed to examine clinical determinants of seizure outcomes. RESULTS: Twenty-two studies (n = 1077 individuals) were included. There were 607 males (62.2 %) and 369 females (37.8 %) (k = 16 studies). The mean age of KD initiation was 16 months (SD: 5.4, range: 8.4-23 months) (k = 11 studies). Epilepsy etiology was reported in 453 individuals (k = 15 studies), 297 (65.6 %) had a known etiology and 156 (34.4 %) were unknown. Structural (n = 178, 59.9 %) and genetic/metabolic (n = 80, 26.9 %) causes were common. Most received the classic ketogenic diet (n = 975/1077, 90.5 %) and 102 patients (9.5 %) received the modified Atkins diet (MAD). At 3 months, 48 % (95 % CI: 40 %, 57 %) achieved a 50-99 % spasm reduction and 25 % (95 % CI: 17 %, 34 %), achieved spasm freedom. At 6 months, 41 % (95 % CI: 32 %, 50 %) achieved 50-99 % spasm reduction and 25 % (95 % CI: 17 %,35 %), achieved spasm freedom. Meta-regression did not identify predictors of treatment response. CONCLUSION: KD may be an effective treatment option for ES. However, predictors of clinical response were not identified, highlighting the need for larger studies to better understand them and long-term outcomes.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame distilled prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.012
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.000
Version: codex-gemma-dda1882f352aValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Meta-analysis · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Review · Consensus signal: none
Teacher disagreement score0.795
Threshold uncertainty score0.414

Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0120.000
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0020.001
Bibliometrics0.0000.002
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0000.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0000.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.156
GPT teacher head0.436
Teacher spread0.280 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designMeta-analysis
Domainnot available
GenreReview

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations0
Published2025
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

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