الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract This observational cross-sectional study included 50 children with idiopathic epilepsy who were recruited from the Pediatric Neurology Clinic at Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt and 100 non-epileptic age and gender matched controls. The collected data was revised, coded, tabulated and introduced to a PC using Statistical package for Social Science (SPSS 25). Data was presented and suitable analysis was done according to the type of data obtained for each parameter. • As regards population demographic and anthropometric data, the mean age of the studied population was 8.64±3.54 years and 52.7% of them were males. The average weight and height of included subjects were 27.31 ±11.59kg and 120.69 ±21.93cm, respectively. The mean occipitofrontal circumference was 51.2 cm. • The cases and control groups were age and gender matched. A slight male preponderance was observed in the cases group, with males making up 54% of the total group. Among the studied patients, 18% had positive consanguinity and Family history of epilepsy was positive in 28%. • Among the cases, the mean age at seizure onset was 3.75±2.93 years, with a mean frequency of 24.7 ±70.9 Summary 80 seizures per month, with a mean duration of 9.26 minutes per seizure. The seizures were generalized in 96% of the cases and focal in only 4% of the cases. The seizures were almost always followed by a post ictal phase. The EEG was abnormal in 56% of the patients. While it was improved in 50% of the patients after treatment. 72% were controlled on the first line drug, the rest of the patients needed shifting to other drugs to be controlled. The vast majority of patients (82%) ended up being controlled on monotherapy. • There was a statistically significant difference between cases and control in terms of weight percentiles. The difference between cases and controls regarding the occipitofrontal circumference percentile was nearing statistical significance (p =0.06), with the values being consistently lower in the cases group. • The mean serum zinc was significantly lower in cases than in controls (p =0.001). However, there was no statistically significant difference between cases and controls in terms of mean hair zinc level. • Serum and hair zinc levels were not affected by age, gender or anthropemetric measures of the studied groups. Summary 81 • A low serum and hair zinc level were associated with: 1. An earlier age of seizure onset. 2. Higher average duration of seizures frequency. • Hair and serum levels of zinc were positively correlated in the whole populations’ cases and control, the correlation was statistically significant (p=0.002). |