To Study The Association Between Iron Deficiency And Simple Febrile Seizures

Design: Case control study, Setting: Pediatric department of a tertiary care teaching hospital, Participants: Cases were children of age group 6 months to 5 years presenting with simple febrile seizures. Controls were children of same age group presenting with short febrile illness without any seizures, Materials and Methods: In this study, cases 101 children with febrile seizures and 101 febrile children without seizures were taken. (Control. All children were aged between 6 months to 5 years. The groups were matched in age and gender. Blood samples were collected from each child for measuring of blood indices such as HB, MCV and MCH. Serum Ferritine, serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), % saturation of transferine are measured and compared, Results: The peak incidence of febrile seizures is between 6months and 1 year of age. The mean age being 18 months with male: female ratio of 1.5: 1. Significantly, a greater proportion of children with febrile seizures have low Serum Ferrine (<50ng/ml); low HB (<=10gm/dl), low MCV (<=75fl) and MCH (28) and low transferrine saturation (<=15) as compared to controls. Although there were low levels of serum iron and increased total iron binding Capacity these variables did not achieve statistical significance. The odds of children to have febrile seizures is 2.7 when compared to controls who are not anemic, Conclusions: In our study Plasma Ferritin level and blood indices are significantly lower in children with febrile seizures suggesting that iron deficient children are more prone to febrile seizures.