ABSTRACT
Seizure is the most common neurological disorder among children that not only is known as a diagnosis but also as a clinical manifestation of several underlying diseases. Its pathogenesis is not yet known, but the genetic background and alterations in neurotransmitters and the rare elements such as magnesium may be involved. This study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between magnesium levels in children and seizure. This study was a case - control study and included 78 children aged between 6 months and 5 years with febrile convulsion and 74 children hospitalized for reasons other than febrile seizure in Besat Hospital from 2011 to 2012. Demographic characteristics, history and duration of disease were obtained from their parents and if the patients met the inclusion criteria, blood samples were taken for serum preparation. After preparation of serum using Hitachi 902 automated analyzer and Pars Azmoon kits, magnesium levels were measured in milligrams per liter by spectrophotometeric method. Normal range of magnesium level was considered 15-23 mg/ liter. Using SPSS version 18, descriptive statistic tests and t-test, the data were used to compare magnesium levels in both sexes and groups. We used chi-square and OR calculation to calculate the odds ratio for seizures. The highest frequency belonged to seizures with duration of 5 minutes [24%] and tonic-clonic seizures [74/4%]. Mean levels of magnesium in the boys and girls were 22/87 +/- 3/18 and 24/77 +/- 5/89 respectively, which showed a statistically significant difference [p = 0.018]. The mean magnesium level was 24/09 +/- 3/87 in children with seizure and 23/40 +/- 5/50 in healthy children which had no differences [p = 0.37]. The odds ratio for the risk of seizure in children with magnesium deficiency was 1.38.s. In general we can say that magnesium levels in children with seizure and healthy children do not differ and deficiency of this element alone cannot cause seizure, although we found higher than normal levels of magnesium in most children in our study