THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN BLOOD PLATELET INDICES (PLATELET COUNT AND MEAN PLATELET VOLUME) AND FEBRILE SEIZURE IN CHILDREN

*Hala Saeed, MD, Mazen Ghaleeh, PhD and Abdulmonem Ghanem, PhD

ABSTRACT

Background: There is a growing evidence for the association between inflammation and pathology of febrile seizure, and indices of inflammatory response such as mean platelet volume(MPV) and platelet (PLT) count have been investigated in the susceptibility to febrile seizure. Aim: The aim of the current study was to evaluate platelets count and MPV in children with febrile seizure compared with febrile children. Patients and Methods: In this case-control study, we reviewed medical records of 80 patients referred to the pediatric emergency unit, Lattakia Hospital, during one-years period(2023-2024) with febrile seizure(cases) and 80 patients with fever without seizure(controls). Results: Out of 160 patients, (59.4%) were male and (40.6%) were female, with mean age of the patients was 26.15±11.9 months. There were no significant differences between two groups regarding of age, sex, and temperature(p>0.05). Family history of febrile seizure was significantly higher in cases group(53.8% vs. 18.8% in control group,p:0.0001). PLT count was significantly lower in cases group(249.08±80.2 vs. 327.81±108.3 in controls,p:0.0001), whereas MPV was significantly higher in cases group(8.6±1.2 vs. 7.9±0.9,p:0.04). In addition to, PLT was significantly lower and MPV was higher in simple seizures compared to complex ones;(246.18±78.3 vs. 254.88±92.4,p:0.01) and (9.1±0.9 vs. 7.7±1.1,p:0.002) respectively. Conclusion: The current study revealed that PLT count and MPV represented inexpensive and easily accessible hematologic markers for detecting the risk for febrile seizure.

Keywords: Febrile, seizure, mean platelet volume(MPV), platelet count, Syria.