Relationship between iron deficiency anemia and febrile convulsion in infants

Abstract

Purpose : The association between iron deficiency anemia and febrile convulsion in infants has been examined in several studies with conflicting results. Therefore, the authors aimed to evaluate the precise relationship involved. Methods : In this case-control study, the authors assessed 100 children with a diagnosis of febrile convulsion, aged between 9 months and 2 years, during January 2007 to July 2009. The control group consisted of 100 febrile children without convulsion&#59; controls were closely matched to the cases by age, gender, and underlying disease. Results : The mean ages of the febrile convulsion and control group were 16.3¡?#?.4 ;and 15.8¡?#?.1 ;months, respectively, and the two groups had no differences in clinical features. Iron deficiency anemia (Hb &amp&#59;lt&#59;10.5 gm/dL) was more frequent in the febrile convulsion group than in the control group, although there was no statistical significance. Unexpectably, the RDW (red blood cell distribution width) was significantly lower and the MCNC (mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration) was significantly higher among seizure cases than among the controls (P&amp&#59;lt&#59;0.05). There is no statistical difference between simple and complex febrile groups in the clinical and laboratory profiles. On multiple logistic regression analysis, iron deficiency anemia was more frequent, but the RDW was lower, among the cases with febrile convulsion, compared with the controls. Conclusions : Our study suggests that the iron deficiency anemia is associated with febrile convulsion, and screening for iron deficiency anemia should be considered in children with febrile convulsions

Correlation of serum iron and serum calcium levels in children with febrile seizures

“…They concluded that, lower plasma ferritin is associated and may play a role in febrile seizures. Naveed-ur-Rehman et al & Billoo, 12 Vasvani et al, 24 Jun et al, 25 Saeed et al, 26 Fallah et al 13 also found low serum ferritin, Hb, MCV (<70 fl) and MCH (<24 Pg) in cases; results being similar to present study and concluding that low body iron plays an important role in brain metabolism, can down regulate halting many substantial functions of brain and could lead to febrile seizures.…”

Relationship between iron deficiency anemia and febrile seizures in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Subsequently, 13 of the 30 articles were excluded [22,23,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]: two were review articles [22,23], one had no control group [37], two included an afebrile healthy control group instead of febrile children as the control group [34,36], and eight were incomplete studies that provided insufficient data for statistical calculations [35,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. Finally, 17 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]45]. A flow diagram of the study selection is presented in Fig.…”

“…All studies included children aged 3 months to 6 years. Most studies were conducted in Asia, including five in Iran [13,17,18,20,21], four in Pakistan [9,11,12,14], two in India [10,15], one in Korea [45], one in Jordan [8], one in the USA [19], one in Italy [7], one in Canada [6], and one in Greece [16]. Each study used different criteria to diagnose iron deficiency (ID) and IDA.…”

“…Each study used different criteria to diagnose iron deficiency (ID) and IDA. Two studies used serum iron level [20,21], four studies used plasma ferritin [8,10,15,16] and the remaining 11 studies used mean corpuscular volume (MCV) [6,7,9,[11][12][13][14][17][18][19]45]. Quality assessment was performed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (Supplemental Table 1).…”

Iron Deficiency Anemia: The Possible Risk Factor of Complex Febrile Seizure and Recurrence of Febrile Seizure

“…RBC, Hb, and Hct levels in the CFS group were lower than those in the SFS group, but not statistically significant. In the Pearson's chisquare test, the odds ratio of the first seizure onset age <18 months was significantly higher in the CFS group with a value of IDA is the most common micronutrient deficiency worldwide, occurring in 9-40% of children from 6-24 months of age 17) . Be cause iron in the hemoglobin structure plays an important role in transporting oxygen to the brain, some researchers believe that iron may reduce seizure threshold 8) .…”