Duration of recognized fever in febrile seizure predicts later development of epilepsy
Pediatrics International, 03/23/2012
Kanemura H et al. – The duration of recognized fever appears to provide useful information about the risk for the later development of epilepsy.
Methods- Children aged to 6 months to 6 years with an initial simple FS were eligible for the study.
- The interview included questions about the child's illness, family history of seizures, and other exposure information.
- In particular, they were asked about the duration of recognized fever prior to the seizure.
- After the initial interview, parents were called every 3 to 4 months to ascertain whether any further seizures had occurred and the circumstances under which such seizures occurred.
- Five of 92 children (5.4%) experienced unprovoked seizures and were considered part of an epilepsy group.
- In 4 of these 5 patients, the duration of recognized fever prior to FS fell more than 2.5 + standard deviations outside the distribution for the non-epilepsy group.
- Either an unusually short or long duration of recognized fever prior to the initial FS was associated with an increased risk of unprovoked seizures.
