Clinical, epidemiological and laboratory characteristics of children with febrile seizures

Abstract

Background: Febrile seizure is the most common type of seizure disorder that occurs in children aged 6-60 months. Recurrences are common. This study was conducted to evaluate the epidemiology, clinical profile and laboratory parameters of children presenting with febrile seizure in a teaching hospital.Methods: This was a descriptive retrospective study among children presenting with febrile seizure admitted to KIMS, Bengaluru from March (2018-2019). Children between six months to five years were included in the study while patients with prior episodes of afebrile seizures, abnormal neurodevelopment and not meeting the age criteria were excluded. Patient’s demographic and clinical data were collected from the in-patient records and analysed.Results: Among 60 children with febrile seizures were enrolled in our study with highest prevalence in males (58%) and amongst 13-24 months age group (37%). Majority (20%) presented in the monsoon season (June) and in the morning hours (43%). Simple febrile seizures and complex febrile seizures were observed in 60% and 40% respectively. Majority (73%) who developed first episode of seizure were below 24 months ago with mean age of 18.71±11.50 months. 42% had recurrence and was significantly associated with first episode of febrile seizures at age ≤1 year and family history of seizures. Upper respiratory tract infections were the commonest cause of fever. Anaemia and leucocytosis were seen in 72% and 70% cases respectively.Conclusions: Febrile seizure was observed predominantly in children below two years, simple febrile seizure being the commonest. Recurrence was common and significantly associated with the first episode of febrile seizure at the age one year or below and family history. Majority had anaemia which showed that iron deficiency anaemia could be a risk factor. Leucocytosis was present in most which could be either due to underlying infection or due to the stress of seizure itself.

Study of Febrile Seizure among Hospitalized Children of a Tertiary Centre of Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

“…Our study found that FS peaked during second year of life which corroborates to the finding from India and China. 18 , 19 However Deng et al from Malaysia found its peak in the first year of life. 20 In this study, FS predominantly occurred in male children similar to other studies from Nepal and abroad.…”

Study of demography risk factors of simple and complex febrile seizure and associated infection in children at tertiary care center

“…14 Shankar P et al also report a family history in around 30% children. 17 The difference in the incidences may be due to genetic predisposition in various populations. It can largely be affected by the lack of awareness about past seizures in the parents or any members of the family.…”

Twenty‐four hour pattern of childhood febrile seizures substantiated by time series meta‐analysis: Circadian medicine perspectives

“…Criteria for the inclusion of retrieved publications to accomplish our specified aims were: (1) investigation of at least 100 CFS cases, (2) determination of the time of day of each CFS by report of a parent/caretaker or the arrival time to the health care facility according to the patient's medical record, (3) presentation in tabular or graphic form of the number or proportion of children experiencing a FS per 1, 4, or 6‐hour time interval of the 24 h, and (4) documentation of febrile state by measurement of body temperature at home within 24 h of the onset of the CFS and/or upon arrival to the emergency department (ED), clinic, or hospital. One 13 of the 11 retrieved publications summarized the findings of a previous publication 16 ; one 19 presented no time‐of‐day data; and one 20 was deficient both in the number of cases ( N = 60) and clock‐time definition of “afternoon,” “evening,” “morning,” and “night” for which data were presented, leaving the time series data of eight qualifying articles that utilized diverse methods (see accompanying Supporting Information for a thorough description of the methods of each investigation) representing the time‐of‐day manifestation of 2461 CFSs.…”

“…Medline, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases were searched for publications in any language using the terms of "childhood febrile seizure" paired with "timeof-day," "24 hour," "diurnal," and "circadian." Eleven potentially relevant articles [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] were retrieved, with six of them also addressing monthly or seasonal variation in CFSs. [13][14][15][16][17][18] Therefore, the same databases were further explored using the terms "childhood febrile seizure" paired with "seasonal," "annual," and "circannual"; however, it yielded no additional articles that reported time-of-day data.…”

“…retrieved publications summarized the findings of a previous publication 16 ; one 19 presented no time-of-day data; and one 20 was deficient both in the number of cases (N = 60) and clock-time definition of "afternoon," "evening," "morning," and "night" for which data were presented, leaving the time series data of eight qualifying articles that utilized diverse methods (see accompanying Supporting Information for a thorough description of the methods of each investigation) representing the time-of-day manifestation of 2461 CFSs.…”