Evaluation of Iron Status in Children Presenting with Febrile Seizure in a Tertiary Health-care Facility

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and febrile seizures (FS) in children. Materials and Methods: The study included 100 cases of FS in children between the ages of 6 and 60 months, including both simple and complex FS. Children in the same age range who had a fever but no seizures made up the control group. The various hematological parameters reflecting the iron status, including hemoglobin (Hb), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), red-cell distribution width (RDW), serum ferritin, and total iron-binding capacity (TIBC), were evaluated in both groups to ascertain the relationship between the iron status and the FS. Results: Male-female ratio in children with and without FS were 1.2:1 and 1.3:1, with a mean age of 25.16 ± 11.75 and 24.37 ± 11.75 months, respectively. Age and gender distribution were comparable between the two groups (P = 0.719 and P = 0.851, respectively). The mean values for Hb, MCV, MCHC, RDW, ferritin, and TIBC among children who had FS were 11.030.98 g/dL, 66.1810.97 fl, 32.421.38 pg/L, 14.881.13, 46.5432.64 ng/mL, and 419.7672.49 g/dL, respectively. In contrast, the readings for the control group's children were 11.91 0.78, 67.94 11.06 fl, 32.80 0.60 pg/L, 14.16 1.01, 59.20 27.52 ng/mL, and 378.65 60.87 g/dL, respectively. Except for the mean MCV, each of these variances was statistically significant. Conclusions: Our results suggest that IDA is a major risk factor for FS since it was more common in the case group than in the control group.