Relationship between the febrile seizures in children and complete blood count inflammatory indices

Abstract

Background A lot of effort has been put in to identify the pathophysiology of febrile seizures (FS) in children, but it has not entirely caught on. Severity of inflammation and pattern of immune system stimulation are of apparent significance in FS pathogenesis among susceptible children. So, the role of subtypes of immune system cells (such as macrophages and lymphocytes) and inflammatory indices [such as red blood cell distribution width (RDW), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), mean platelet volume (MPV), and MPV/mean platelet count ratio (MPR)] in FS needs more evaluation. Objective To investigate the applicability of RDW, NLR, MPV, and MPR in children with FS. Patients and methods A sample of 50 children with FS and 50 age-matched and sex-matched controls (had a febrile illness without seizures) were sequentially enrolled in this work. Venous samples for complete blood count had been obtained within 2 h of FS, and then the values of RDW, NLR, MPV, and MPR were calculated, tabulated, and statistically analyzed in both groups. Results We noted that the raised NLR and MPR values were linked with raised likelihood of FS. The optimum cutoff values of NLR and MPR for FS probability were 1.25 and 0.024, whereas the area under the curve was 0.664 and 0.822, successively. The mean values of MPV were statistically significantly decreased in complex febrile seizure (CFS) when compared with simple febrile seizure (SFS). However, there was no significant statistical difference between CFS and SFS regarding NLR and MPR mean values. Furthermore, we found that there was no significant statistical difference regarding mean values of RDW either between FS and controls or between CFS and SFS. Conclusions Increased NLR and MPR values in FS support the hypothesis of white cell subset implication in FS generation, and our study guaranteed that MPV is a simple, but limited, indicator in distinguishing CFS from SFS.