background:

Febrile convulsion is amongst the most comman convulsive disorder in children between the age group of 6 months to 5 years. Some studies have reported that iron deficiency could be a risk factor for febrile seizures.

aims & objectives:

The present study was conducted to evaluate the role of iron deficiency as a risk factor for simple febrile seizures in children aged 6 months to 5 years

MATERIAL & METHODS:

A cross sectional study was carried out in the department of pediatrics krishna hospital and medical research centre karad, conducted in a period of 6 months from august 2017 to february 2018 in which the  number of cases being 20. The cases taken were of children of age between 6 months to 5 years suffering from febrile seizures. All patients were accessed for iron deficiency anemia by measuring hemoglobin level, serum ferritin level, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, packed cell volume, TIBC, transferrin.

RESULT:

 In the present study total 20 children suffering from febrile convulsions were included. Out of 20 patients 12(60%) were anemic having hemoglobin below 11 gm/dl. All other laboratory findings such as iron profile(MCH, MCHC, MCV), PCV, hematocrit count show significance above 60% except the serum ferritin level which is quite higher as compared to the other laboratory findings. The ferritin level is affected by the severity of fever and increases with fever.

CONCLUSION:

As a conclusion, the study suggests that patients with iron deficiency anemia were more likely to have febrile seizures.