An observational epidemiological study of febrile convulsion due to urinary tract infection

Febrile convulsion (FC) is the most common seizure disorder in childhood. Few studies focused on epidemiologic characteristics of urinary tract infections accompanied by FC.

To evaluate prevalence and incidence rates of FC among children with urinary tract infection. Patients and

An observational study in epidemiology was performed in nephrology clinic of a tertiary children hospital from June 2002 to 2016. Totally 1242 cases were followed and those aged 6-60 months enrolled in the study. Demographic characteristics were compared between patients with and without FC.

784 cases including 704 girls (89.8%) and 80 boys (10.2%) enrolled. Twenty-five patients (3.18%) presented with FC. FC occurred in 25 of 503 cases (5%) with febrile urinary tract infection. Twenty girls and 5 boys were in FC and 684 girls and 75 boys were in non-FC groups (P= 0.1). The average age in FC and non-FC groups were 15.52±8.4 and 25.16± 16 months respectively (P=0.004). Patients were divided into 2 age sub-groups: 6-24 and 26-60 months. A significantly higher number of cases in FC compared with non-FC group were in age subgroup of 6-24 months (P=0.028).

Our study revealed a prevalence rate of 3.18% and an incidence rate of 5% for FC among children with urinary tract infection. Also FC subjects had a significantly younger age at presentation than non-FC cases. We found that FC as presentation of urinary tract infection occurred up to 3 years old, and there is no significant gender difference between FC and non-FC cases.