A Comparative Study of Pro & Anti-Inflammatory Cytokine Levels in Children with Febrile Seizure

Objective: To compare the levels of pro and anti-Inflammatory cytokines in children presenting with febrile seizures v/s only febrile illness in age group of 6 to 60 months. Study design: In this hospital based observational case-control study; conducted in Department of Pediatric Medicine, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, New Delhi 50 children (of age 6 to 60 months were included. Patients undergo relevant investigation to find out abnormality in complete blood count, liver function tests and renal function tests. Pro and antiinflammatory cytokine levels including IL-1β, IL-6 IL-10 & TNF-α were assessed by ELISA by using TECAN INFINITE F50 absorbance microplate reader. Results: In febrile seizure cases; 72% children had simple febrile seizure, followed by complex febrile seizure in 28%. The median (25th-75th percentile) values of pro inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-ɑ and IL-6) were significantly higher in febrile seizure cases as compared to control group. The median value of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 showed no significant difference in cases v/s control group. Conclusions: A comparative analysis of different cytokines in febrile seizure can be useful as diagnostic marker. Role of cytokines in pathogenesis of different other diseases had studied previously and then pharmaceutical drugs were formulated against particular cytokine. On the contrary in febrile seizure there is still lack of sufficient studies, so the role of drugs against cytokines in febrile seizures still needs to be studied.