Perception of fever and management practices by parents of pediatric patients.

Background: The febrile child is a common pediatric presentation in both primary care and the emergency department. An assessment of parents’ perception to recognize fever in their child, as well as management practices was the focus of this study. Methods: The study was done prospectively in which interviews were taken by researchers. One hundred and sixty four parents, whose children were less than 14 years old, had fever as one of the presenting complaints and admitted in pediatric department of Rama medical college & research center, Kanpur, were included in this study. Results: Majority of the parents 114 (69.51%) managed the fever initially at home. Only a few parents (17.07%) correctly managed the fever by taking their children to hospital or to a qualified practitioner, rest of the parents primarily rely on local medical store or unqualified practitioner. Conclusion: Parents need to be educated, when they consult health facilities especially during vaccination visits. Decreased appetite was the most common presenting complaint along with fever in children and it should be taken as a significant factor during health education of fever for early and appropriate consultation.

Usefulness of Serum Prolactin in Differentiating Epileptic and Pseudoseizures in Children.

Transient hyperprolectinemia has been reported to follow unprovoked seizures. This study was conducted in 90 children aged 1-18 years of age. The study comprised of four groups: Group-1 consisted of children with epilepsy which was further subdivided into GTCS, CPS and SPS. Group-2 comprised of children having febrile convulsions. Group-3 comprised of children suffering from non-epileptic paroxysmal events like breath holding spell, syncope and pseudoseizures or conversion reaction. Group-4 consisted of children who served as controls. Blood sample was collected within two hours of the event in all the groups. The exact interval between the event and the collection of blood sample was noted. Serum prolactin level was estimated by ELISA technique. In the present study, significant elevation of serum prolactin level was observed only in the Group-1 (28.77+15.49ng/ml) as compared to controls (9.53+2.45ng/ml) and the highest levels were observed in children with GTCS. Maximum elevation of prolactin was seen within 15 to 30 minutes post ictally. As the prolactin levels become normal after two hours of post ictal period, the test looses its significance.