Résumé
This study was conducted on 72 patients with febrile convulsions. They were 45 males and 27 females. Their ages ranged between 6 and 48 months with a mean of 24.7 +/- 8.78 months. They were recruited from the patients attending the Emergency Department, Children's Hospital, Ain Shams University. A cohort of 40 healthy siblings of the patients was chosen as a control group. All cases and controls were subjected to detailed medical history taking, clinical examination and laboratory investigations including complete hemogram, total iron binding capacity as well as serum levels of iron, ferritin and lead. In addition, hemoglobin and iron indices of the cases were reassessed 6 months after institution of iron therapy. The study showed that iron deficiency anemia was more prevalent in febrile convulsive children compared to their controls. However the lead status was not different among the studied groups. The frequency of febrile convulsions correlated significantly negative with serum levels of iron and ferritin and positively with TIBC. However, neither the iron indices nor the frequency of febrile convulsions showed any correlation with the frequency of febrile illnesses. Responders to iron therapy demonstrated lower seizure frequency compared to non-responders, although they were not different regarding the frequency of febrile illnesses. So it can be concluded that iron deficiency anemia is a direct risk factor for the development and recurrence of febrile convulsions. This risk is primarily due to iron deficiency per se rather than due to increased risk of febrile illnesses. So we recommend iron therapy in iron deficient febrile convulsive children to minimize the risk of recurrent fits