Afebrile seizure subsequent to initial febrile seizure

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>Febrile seizure (FS) is the most common paediatric neurological problem. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of afebrile seizures subsequent to FS in children with initial FS and to evaluate its risk factors.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A prospective study was conducted on all children (age 6 months to 6 years) referred with initial FS to the Shahid Sadoughi Hospital, Yazd, Iran, between August 2004 and March 2006, who were followed up for at least 15 months for the occurrence of subsequent afebrile seizures.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>161 boys and 120 girls (mean age 2.12 ± 1.33 years) were followed up for 34.1 ± 7.8 months. 87 (31%) patients had complex FS and 19 (6.7%) patients had subsequent afebrile seizure, with a mean occurrence time of 10.6 ± 6.4 months. Univariate analysis using chi-square test showed that initial FS within one hour of developing fever (p = 0.0001), neurodevelopmental delay (p = 0.0001), family history of epilepsy (p = 0.0001), recurrent FS (p = 0.003) and focal FS (p = 0.04) were risk factors for subsequent afebrile seizure. On multivariate analysis, neurodevelopmental delay (odds ratio [OR] 2.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.3-3.4), initial FS within one hour of developing fever (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.2-2.1) and family history of epilepsy (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.1-1.9) were significant factors.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Special attention should be paid to children with FS during history-taking and developmental assessments to identify high-risk patients and those who might need prophylactic anticonvulsants.</p>

Mothers experience regarding the relationship between dairy products and their children's seizures

Epilepsy is one of the most important problems in neurology. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between dairy products and seizures of the epileptic children based on their mothers' experience. In a descriptive- analytic study, mothers' experience regarding the relationship between dairy products and seizures of their children was evaluated via a questionnaire. This research was done in the pediatric neurology clinic of Shaheed Sadoughi Medical Sciences University- Yazd- Iran in 2007. One hundred and forty eight mothers with an age range of 17-52 years [mean +/- SD: 31.6 +/- 6.6 years] were evaluated. Their children were 58.5% boys and 41.5% girls with an age range of 1-18 years [mean +/- SD: 6.6 +/- 4.2 years]. The most common dairy products which provoked seizure based on mothers' experience, were milk and ice cream. The effect of different kinds of dairy products was not different between males and female children. Mothers who experienced the effect of dried whey [kashk in Persian] on seizure were younger than others. Lack of correlation between milk and ice cream on seizures was reported in educated mothers. Parent education on the diet of their epileptic children is necessary. On the other hand, extracting of suspicious food ingredients and testing them on animal models, should be done by other researches