Evaluation of risk factors associated with first episode febrile seizure

Febrile convulsion (FC) is one of the most common neurological findings in children. This study was aimed to investigate the difference in laboratory parameters between Febrile Seizure and control groups.

In this study, 169 children admitted to the pediatric emergency department with their first episode of FS and 189 control groups were retrospectively analyzed. The demographic characteristics and laboratory parameters of children were obtained from their files.

Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) was determined the most common disease (81.6%) in the FC group followed by acute gastroenteritis (AGE) (15.4%) and urinary tract infection (UTI) (3%), respectively. Similarly, URTI was detected as the most common disease (81.8%) in control groups. It was determined that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of diseases. The leukocyte and neutrophil counts of the children with FC were significantly higher but the mean corpuscular volume of lenfosit and lenfosit/neutrophil ratio was significantly lower than the control groups (p= 0.009, <0.001, 0.001, <0.001, <0.001, respectively). Children with FC had significantly higher blood glucose, urea, creatinine, creatine kinase, alkaline phosphatase and albumin levels compared with the control groups (p<0.001, in all parameters). On the other hand, the potassium, sodium and chlorine levels of the Children with FCs were significantly lower than control groups (p=0.017, <0.001, p <0.001, respectively).

To conclude, febrile patients with high leukocyte counts, high neutrophil counts, and several biochemical parameters should be carefully monitored for FCs due to the increasing seizure risk.