CDKL5 deficiency disorder is a rare neurological disorder leading to high morbidity and mortality. Epileptic encephalopathy is one of the most important manifestations and often shows a poor response to a variety of anti-seizure medications. There are no specific effective medications for this disorder, and there is no definite evidence for the efficacy of KD. As CDKL5 deficiency disorder is extremely rare, high-quality evidence from large-sample, randomized or prospective studies is relatively difficult to achieve. We perform a meta-analysis on KD in patients with CDKL5-related epilepsy to provide relatively reliable evidence and a data basis for future research.
3.1 The definite responder rate to KD in CDKL5-related epilepsy was low
The purpose of this meta-analysis was to determine the efficacy of KD in CDKL5-related epilepsy and to evaluate its possible adverse reactions. Twelve retrospective studies were included in this analysis. The responder rate varied widely from 0 to 66.7% among different studies. Among them, 4 studies 23, 25, 26, 28 clearly defined the efficacy of KD therapy (seizure reduction ≥ 50%), and the responder rates were 0% (0/10), 10.0% (1/10), 16.7% (2/12), and 50.0% (1/2). For the results of the meta-analysis, the definite responder rate was only 18.0%. The remaining 8 studies 19, 22, 24, 27, 29–32 did not clearly define the efficacy, and the responder rates reported in each study ranged from 11.1–66.7%. For the results of the meta-analysis including all twelve studies, the clinical responder rate was 50.5%, which was much higher than the defined responder rate. The difference resulted from the fact that most of the studies did not define the responder as an outcome of efficacy. The outcomes were relatively unclear and could not represent the real efficacy of KD, which might overestimate the efficacy to some degree. A meta-analysis with 5 randomized controlled trials involving 472 children confirmed that the responder rate to KD in the treatment of children with drug-resistant epilepsy was 52.0% 33. Compared with the efficacy of KD in the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy, the definite responder rate to KD in CDKL5-related epilepsy was low, and the literature with low-quality evidence might overestimate the efficacy. More high-quality research evidence is needed in the future to confirm the efficacy.
3.2 The incidence of gastrointestinal adverse reactions was high, and these were the most common adverse reactions.
For the safety of KD, a meta-analysis with five randomized controlled trials involving 472 children with refractory epilepsy 33 showed that gastrointestinal adverse reactions were the most common adverse reactions, with an incidence of 30%, manifested as vomiting, diarrhea and constipation. In this analysis, only one study 24 mentioned adverse reactions during the KD, and the incidence of adverse reactions was 78.3% (18/23), manifested as constipation and vomiting. The incidence of gastrointestinal adverse reactions was relatively higher in the patients with CDKL5-related epilepsy during the KD. On the one hand, this might be related to the bias of low-quality evidence from the studies with small samples. On the other hand, CDKL5 deficiency disorder itself is prone to gastroesophageal reflux 8, while KD is a specific diet with a high fat ratio, which might be more likely to cause gastrointestinal adverse reactions. Further studies with higher quality are needed to confirm the safety of KD in CDKL5-related epilepsy.
3.3 Retrospective studies with low quality of evidence and incomplete details about KD might affect the reliability of the final results.
All 12 studies included in the analysis were retrospective studies, and the quality of evidence of the studies was relatively low. Few studies have specifically targeted the efficacy of KD in CDKL5-related epilepsy. In this analysis, only two studies 19, 23 were targeted to analyze the efficacy of KD in CDKL5-related epilepsy. One study 27 analyzed the efficacy of KD for specific genetic mutations in developmental and epileptic encephalopathy, which included patients with CDKL5 gene mutations. The main purpose of the remaining 9 studies was to analyze the phenotypes related to CDKL5 gene mutations, and the efficacy was mentioned in the article, but without the specific details of KD therapy, such as the age of KD initiation, the course of disease when KD was initiated, duration of KD, follow-up time, response time of KD and seizure frequency reduction after KD. The information about KD was not sufficiently detailed. Two studies 24, 25 mentioned that the average ages of KD initiation were 22 months and 3 years, respectively. Two studies 19, 25 mentioned that the average courses of disease when KD was initiated were 4 years and 3 years, respectively. Four studies 19, 23, 24, 26 clearly mentioned the follow-up time after KD, and the median time of follow-up in two studies was 2 years and 17 months, respectively. The other two studies performed at least 3 months and 12 months of follow-up. The follow-up time was reasonable in these four studies, and the efficacy was relatively reliable. The other 8 studies did not mention the follow-up time after KD, which might lead to an inaccurate evaluation of the real efficacy.
Regarding the outcomes to evaluate the efficacy of KD, the responders were clearly defined as having a seizure frequency reduced by more than 50% after KD only in 4 studies 23, 25, 26, 28, of which only one study 23 also defined the responder as having a duration of seizure frequency reduction that lasted for at least 4 weeks. The responders in the remaining 8 studies did not clearly define the outcomes of efficacy. Among the 8 studies, the efficacy was evaluated through parent questionnaires without clear definition in 3 studies 19, 23, 24. The outcomes were only described as “effective” in the articles without specific descriptions of seizure frequency reduction in the other 5 studies 27, 29–32. In general, outcomes of efficacy were accurate in most studies, and the lack of detailed descriptions of KD might affect the final evaluation of the real efficacy of KD.
In addition, the sample sizes of the included studies varied greatly, ranging from 2 to 104 cases. The sample sizes in 9 studies19, 23, 24 were less than 10 cases, and the sample sizes in the other 3 studies 19, 23, 24 were 12, 23 and 104 cases, respectively. The small sample sizes might affect the accuracy of the meta-analysis results. Lim Z 19 performed the study with the largest sample size among the included studies, and the it was designed to evaluate the efficacy of KD in CDKL5-related epilepsy; however, this study was also retrospective. A total of 104 patients were included; 69 patients reported the efficacy of KD, of which 61 reported positive effects, with a responder rate of 58.7%. Of the 61 patients who reported positive effects, 49 patients reported improvement in seizure frequency, 31 patients reported improvement in seizure duration and 37 patients reported improvement in seizure intensity. The relatively high responder rate in this study might be related to the unclear definition of the efficacy and retrospective questionnaire for parents, which might lead to recall bias and selection bias.