NEW YORK, Mar 19 (Reuters Health) - A special high-fat diet that helps control seizures in some people with hard-to-treat epilepsy may lead to increased bruising and minor bleeding, according to results of a new study.

The findings may have implications for people without epilepsy who are on one of the popular diets that limit carbohydrates, the study's lead author notes.

During the past decade, more and more doctors have been recommending a high-fat diet to patients, particularly children, whose epilepsy does not respond well to medications. The diet, which severely limits the consumption of protein and carbohydrates, is known as the ketogenic diet because it induces a process called ketosis.

Ketosis occurs when the body, deprived of its primary energy source, carbohydrates, turns to fat for fuel. For reasons that are not entirely clear, this process often reduces epileptic seizures.

While helpful to many people with epilepsy, a ketogenic diet may have an effect on blood cells called platelets, which are involved in blood clotting, researchers report in the January issue of Annals of Neurology.

In a study of 51 people with epilepsy who were on a ketogenic diet, about 31% experienced excessive bleeding. And 6% experienced other bleeding problems, such as nosebleeds, the report indicates.

"The diet and accompanying ketosis induces mild platelet dysfunction in at least a subset of patients," according to the study's lead author, Dr. Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, of RUSH-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.

The findings mean "patients need to be watched for this complication and that it needs to be taken into consideration when considering treatments or procedures that might be associated with a risk of bleeding," Berry-Kravis told Reuters Health.

She noted, however, that for most patients, the bruising is a minor problem.

Laboratory tests conducted on the blood of a subgroup of patients with bruising showed that these patients tended to have slightly longer bleeding times and that their platelets had reduced responses. Unusual bleeding or bruising were more common in younger patients, but gender or the type of epilepsy treatment did not appear to have an effect, according to the report.

While the study included only people who were on the special diet to control epilepsy, the complication could occur in people without epilepsy who are following one of the popular low-carbohydrate diets, according to Berry-Kravis. She noted that some people on these diets do develop ketosis.

"I would think it is possible that the same type of platelet dysfunction could be seen," she said.

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