SerumTrace Elements in Febrile Seizure: A Case-Control Study

OBJECTIVE Febrile seizure (FS) is one of the most common neurological problems during childhood.Pathogenesis of febrile convulsion is unknown. This study investigated some trace elements among children admitted with FS compared with thoseof febrile without seizure attacks. MATERIALS & METHODS This case-control study was conducted on48 children (6 months to 5 yrold) diagnosed with febrile seizure as the cases and 48 age-matched febrile children as the control group. Serum levels of magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, and serum zinc were measured. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS (version 15) using Student t-test. RESULTS There were no significant differences between the cases and controls in terms of gender or age. The means of serum level of zinc, sodium, calcium and magnesium in the case group was lower than those of the control group. There was no significant difference onserum potassium mean level between the case and control groups. CONCLUSION Deficiency of trace elements was correlated significantly with febrile convulsion, while further investigations on trace elements are required.