Relationship of Iron Deficiency Anemia with Simple Febrile Seizure in Children

Abstract

Background and objective: Febrile Seizure (FS) is the commonest seizure disorder among under 5 children. Iron deficiency is a documented risk factor of FS and as the data about the relationship of iron deficiency with FS among Bangladeshi children is scanty, this study was undertaken to assess the association of Serum Ferritin to simple FS.Materials and Methods: This case control study was conducted at the department of pediatrics of SSMC & Mitford Hospital during 7th May 2011 to 6th January 2012 on consecutive 120 children aged between five months to six years who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were considered as cases. Similar number of age and sex matched children admitted with fever without seizures were taken as controls. All candidates were gone through CBC with RBC indices and serum ferritin and iron deficiency anemia was diagnosed on the basis of mentioned tests.Results: The results showed that majority of the cases were male (66.7%) and most of them were between 13-24 months of age (51.7%). Mean duration of convulsion was less than 5 minutes in 70% of the cases. Level of Hb was low in both the cases and controls but the other RBC indices for anemia like MCV, MCH, MCHC and serum ferritin were significantly lower among the febrile seizures group in comparison to controls. The chi-square test is indicated as a significant difference between two groups and odds ratio is 6.0 which signifies that febrile seizure group were 6.0 times more likely to develop iron deficiency anemia compared to control group.Conclusion: The findings suggest that children with febrile seizure have association with iron deficiency anemia (which is evident by microcytic hypochromic anemia and low serum ferritin level) .This means low serum ferritin and presence of anemia can serve as a risk factor for febrile seizure in children.J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2017; 35(2): 75-79