Publication:

Identification and comparing the risk factors of new onset afebrile seizures with neuroimaging studies in children

Background The study was aimed to identify the risk factors associated with new onset afebrile seizures by using neuroimaging techniques and comparing the same with neuroimaging studies in children of different age groups.

Methods This prospective observational study included 65 children aged 1 month to 16 years with afebrile seizures, admitted to the tertiary care hospitals in Chennai during the period from July 2014 to August 2016. Neuroimaging was done in all the patients. The primary outcome measure was identification of risk factors/clinical variables, (if any) that could predict individuals at high or low risk for neuroimaging abnormalities.

Results No statistical significant association was seen between differences in age group among children(p=0.127) and gender (p=0.185). Type of seizures, Number of seizure episodes and duration of seizure episodes seemed to be an important risk factor and a statistically significant association was observed between them and neuroimaging abnormalities with p values of 0.022, 0.008 and 0.001 respectively.

Conclusion Our findings indicate that neuroimaging techniques were helpful in assessing the abnormalities related to new onset afebrile seizures