A study of serum zinc levels among children with seizures in comparison with febrile children without seizures

ABSTRACT

Background: Infants and children are more prone to have seizures than adults. This reflects the greater neuronal excitability at certain ages as the excitatory glutamate system and inhibitory GABA system do not always balance each other. Febrile seizures are the most common type of seizures observed in pediatric age group. Febrile seizures occur in young children at a time in their development when seizure threshold is low. Objective of the study was to determine the levels of zinc in children with febrile seizures when compared to children with fever without seizures.Methods: To determine the levels of zinc in children with febrile seizures when compared to children with fever without seizures. A total of 50 Study subjects were selected into each group. Group 1 Children with Febrile Seizures. Group 2 Children with Fever and Without Febrile Seizures.Results: Among the cases with fever and convulsion Zinc level was found to be low among 72% of the subjects, 22 % of them had normal zinc levels and only 6% had high zinc levels. Among the subjects with Fever and no convulsions nearly 80% of them had normal zinc levels, 16 % had low levels of zinc and 4% had high zinc levels. The association of levels of Zinc between both the groups was found to be statistically significant.Conclusions: This study shows that serum zinc levels are decreased in children with febrile convulsions when compared to children with fever alone without convulsions, thus indicating that zinc deprivation plays significant role in the pathogenesis of febrile convulsions.