RESUMO
Apoptosis and oxidative stress will be studied. The study included 150 pediatric patients admitted to Assiut University children Hospital because of convulsions. Their ages ranged from 6 M- 12y. The study also included 10 apparently healthy children of matchable age as controls. All cases and controls had the following investigations done: complete blood count, serum calcium, glucose, urea and creatinine. Nitric oxide [NO], Total thiobarbituric acid reactive species [TBARS], soluble fas, 5 hydroxytryptamine [5HT], gamma aminobutyric acid [GAB4] and DNA fragmentation percentage. All cases had an EEG done on admission. This study showed that apoptois and oxidative stress were significantly higher in cases than controls. Cases with prolonged and/or focal convulsions showed significantly higher % DNA fragmentation. Cases with simple febrile convulsions, higher degree of rise of temperature and shorter duration of convulsion [<5 minutes] showed significantly higher % DNA fragmentation. Younger cases [<2years] showed significantly higher degree of rise of temperature, oxidative stress and % DNA fragmentation. Cases with [temperature > 39 Degree C] also showed significantly higher % DNA fragmentation and significantly lower GABA levels. Correlation study showed significant positive correlation between % DNA fragmentation and rise of temperature
Conclusion and Recommendations. From this study, it can he concluded that the so called simple febrile convulsions showed significantly higher apoptosis
Recommendations: It is recommended that EEG monitoring should be done during the convulsion to be able to correlate the EEG, findings with the type of convulsion