الفهرس 
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Abstract
children, and epilepsy in up to 1% of children and adolescents.
(Dulac et al., 2013).
Febrile convulsion is the most common convulsive disorder in children
which occurs in 2-5 % of them. This seizure happens in children aged between 6
months and 5 years, with a core temperature higher than 38 ˚C without a central
nervous system infection or an acute brain insult. (Amirsalari et al., 2010).
Iron deficiency is one of the most common nutrition-related problems in the
world, with an appraised 5 billion people (including the human infants especially
between 6 and 24 months of age) so afflicted. In developing countries, 46–66% of
the children under the age of four are anemic, half having iron deficiency anemia.
(Amirsalari et al., 2010).
Iron deficiency anemia and febrile seizures are two common diseases in
children worldwide as well as in our country. Iron insufficiency is known to cause
neurological symptoms like behavioral changes, poor attention span and learning
deficits in children. Therefore, it may also be associated with other neurological
disturbances like febrile seizures in children. (Sherjil et al ., 2010) .
Zinc is one of the most important trace elements required for proper growth
and health, being a cofactor of more than 200 enzymes and a structural protein. But
there are only few studies on zinc status in cases of febrile seizures.
The present study aimed to assess level of serum iron and zinc in children
with febrile seizures in comparison to children suffering from afebrile seizures or
febrile illness without seizures and healthy children.
This study was carried out on 80 children allocated into four groups:
group I: Twenty children with febrile seizures. They were recruited from the
emergency room.
group II: Twenty children with afebrile seizures (known epileptic) recruited
from the inpatient department.
group III: Twenty children with febrile illness, but without convulsions. They
were recruited from the outpatient clinic and emergency room.
group IV: Twenty healthy children. Who were attending the outpatient clinic for
minor illness or follow up.
Groups (II, III and IV): were selected to be age- and sex- matched for group I
and were assigned as control groups.
All children in four groups were subjected to parent oral consent about all
details of the study, detailed medical history with special emphasis on neurological
symptoms and detailed family history of febrile seizures as well as thorough
clinical examination including neurological examination and laboratory
investigations including: complete blood count, Serum CRP, blood chemistry (Na,
K, Ca, and serum glucose) , serum iron and zinc level measured by colorimetric
method.
Data were collected, tabulated and statistically analyzed.
The following findings were obtained:
There was no significant difference between 4 groups as regard to sex and age.
The present study showed that, no one of children with FS had past
neurological insult or developmental delay in contrast to children with afebrile
seizures who were found to have these abnormal neurological histories in their
neonatal period.
As regards features of FS, the present study showed that the most common type
of seizures in children with FS is generalized tonic-clonic (85%), myoclonic
type occurred in about (5%) while focal type in 10% of children.
As regards duration of FS in our study 80% of children with F.S had duration
of seizures 1-10 min and 20% had duration of seizures 11-25min.
As regards family history of seizures in our study 25% of children with F.S had
positive family history, 40% of children with afebrile seizures had positive
family history.
As regards body temperature, there was no significant difference between
children with FS and children with fever only, mean temperature was
(39.54±0.38c° and 39.438±0.61 c° respectively) and p value was 0.503.
There were no significant statistical differences between both first and recurrent
attacks of FS as regards clinico- demographic data and laboratory findings.
There were no significant statistical differences between both simple and
complex FS as regards clinico- demographic data and laboratory findings
As regarding laboratory finding in our study, we found a significant differences
between four groups in Hb level it is low in children with FS in comparison to
children with afebrile seizures (group II) with p value 0.001, fever group
(group III) with p value 0.016 and healthy (group IV) with p value 0.03.
As regards serum electrolytes and glucose, there were no significant differences
between children with FS and other groups children in our study as all
children’s levels were within normal.
Also, our study showed no significant difference as regards TLC and CRP
between FS group and children with fever only as both groups showed mild
leukocytosis as a sign of infection found in them.
As regards serum zinc level in children with FS (group I) was significantly low
in comparison with the three groups.
As regard serum iron level in children with FS (group I) was significantly low
in comparison with the three groups.
We concluded that:
Low serum iron and zinc levels were significant risk factor in patients with
febrile seizures
We may recommend that:-
• It is advisable to prescribe the iron and zinc supplements sooner and more
carefully to children who have important and well-known risk factors for febrile
convulsion, such as family history of febrile convulsion.
• It will be worthwhile to conduct a study to follow up children with iron and zinc
deficiency, which stricken by the febrile convulsions after the treatment of iron
and zinc deficiency, in terms of the recurrence rate of febrile convulsions.