Risk factors associated with first episode of febrile seizure (FS)

Age less than two years, male sex, positive family history of FS, maximum mean temperature, upper respiratory and urinary tract infection, antenatal complications increases the risk of developing first episode of FS.

The study showed that age less than two years, male sex, positive family history of FS, maximum mean temperature, upper respiratory and urinary tract infection, antenatal complications like bleeding, difficult labour, low mean haemoglobin and RBC indices increases the risk of developing first episode of FS.

Febrile seizure is one of the most common of seizure which most commonly affect 2 to 5% children between 6 months to 5 years of age once in lifetime. Although earlier reports suggest that prevalence of FS in Indian children is 10%, recent evidence indicates that the incidence rate is consistent with western prevalence.

A cross-sectional, case-control study was conducted to identify the influential risk factors associated with the occurrence of first episode of febrile seizure. A total of 70 children (aged between 6 months to 5 years) with their first episode of FS (cases) and 70 children with fever but without seizures (controls) were included in the study. The mean age of cases and controls were 24.90 - 16.11 and 26.34 - 16.93 months respectively. The majority of cases (60%) were in age group of 6 to 24 months. About 31.4% and 11.4% cases had a family history of FS in first degree relatives and second degree relatives respectively, which were significant when compared with controls (p

Antenatal complication such as bleeding and history of difficult labour was significantly higher in the cases compared with controls. Similarly, haematological and other laboratories finding such as serum sodium, serum calcium and random blood sugar values were abnormal in cases.

(Source: Sharawat I et al. Evaluation of Risk Factors Associated with First Episode Febrile Seizure. J Clin Diagn Res. 2016;10(5): SC10-SC13).