An observational epidemiological study of febrile convulsion due to urinary tract infection

Abstract

Introduction: Febrile convulsion (FC) is the most common seizure disorder in childhood. Few studies focused on epidemiologic characteristics of urinary tract infections accompanied by FC. Objectives: To evaluate prevalence and incidence rates of FC among children with urinary tract infection. Patients and Methods: An observational study in epidemiology was performed in nephrology clinic of a tertiary children hospital from June 2002 to 2016. Totally 1242 cases were followed and those aged 6-60 months enrolled in the study. Demographic characteristics were compared between patients with and without FC. Results: 784 cases including 704 girls (89.8%) and 80 boys (10.2%) enrolled. Twenty-five patients (3.18%) presented with FC. FC occurred in 25 of 503 cases (5%) with febrile urinary tract infection. Twenty girls and 5 boys were in FC and 684 girls and 75 boys were in non-FC groups (P = 0.1). The average age in FC and non-FC groups were 15.52±8.4 and 25.16± 16 months respectively (P = 0.004). Patients were divided into 2 age sub-groups: 6-24 and 26-60 months. A significantly higher number of cases in FC compared with non-FC group were in age subgroup of 6-24 months (P = 0.028). Conclusion: Our study revealed a prevalence rate of 3.18% and an incidence rate of 5% for FC among children with urinary tract infection. Also FC subjects had a significantly younger age at presentation than non-FC cases. We found that FC as presentation of urinary tract infection occurred up to 3 years old, and there is no significant gender difference between FC and non-FC cases.