Breath holding spells during infancy and early childhood

This study was carried out on 50 infants and young children suffering from BHS. The patients [except for 2 cases] proved to have a low serum iron. EEG abnormalities were present in some patients [12 cases]. Iron therapy was tried in 24 cases while Piracetam was tried in the remaining 26 cases for a period of 12 weeks. There was a marked reduction of the frequency of attacks by 88.9% in patients on iron therapy following a statistically significant rise in their serum iron, while Piracetam showed less effect with a reduction of only 21.7% of fits. Piracetam, however, led to normalization of EEG record in 4 out of 7 patients with abnormal EEG records while iron therapy had no such effect. We recommend serum iron estimation and iron therapy in iron deficient children with BHS prior to any administration of antiepileptic drugs even in the presence of abnormal EEG

Assessment of neonatal convulsions in intensive care units

This study was carried out on 30 neonates with convulsions. They were selected from Abu Elrish Pediatric Hospital and AlGalaa Teaching Hospital between September 2000 and August 2001. They were selected irrespective of the etiology of the convulsions and all of them underwent full clinical, laboratory and imaging procedures in order to reach an etiologic diagnosis and delineate possible diagnostic measures which can predict the outcome and prognosis of their convulsions. EEG was done for all patients and its results were compared to those of cranial ultrasound. Although cranial ultrasound is an easy, rapid and noninvasive mode of diagnosis, EEG proved to be superior to it and of more diagnostic value in case of neonatal convulsions since they may arise from functional derangement of the brain and not necessarily anatomic lesions