Abstract

Objective: Febrile convulsions are the most frequent seizures in childhood. Pentraxin-3 is a new generation acute phase reactant that belongs to the family of long pentraxins. In our study, our primary aim was to investigate the difference in serum Pentraxin-3 levels between febrile convulsive patient group and non-convulsive fever control group. Our secondary aim was to evaluate the correlation between serum Pentraxin-3 levels and other more frequently used acute phase reactants (C-reactive protein, white blood cell count).

Methods: Patients admitted to the pediatric emergency department between January 2014 and July 2014 were included in this prospective study The study included 35 febrile convulsive patients (patient group) and 35 non-convulsive febrile patients (control group) with similar age and gender, without chronic disease or ongoing medication brought to a university hospital Pediatric Emergency Department. Anamnesis information including active complaints, self and family history and laboratory findings of all cases included in the study were recorded on previously printed forms with demographic information such as age (month) and gender of the patient. In statistical analysis, the significance level was accepted as p <0,05.

Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of age, gender, serum urea, creatinine, electrolytes, C-reactive protein and white blood cell counts (p>0,05). Serum Pentraxin-3 levels were 4,8±2,5 ng/ml in the patient group and 4.1±2.3 ng/ml in the control group. The difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (p>0,05). No correlation was found between Pentraxin-3 with C-reactive protein and white blood cell count.

Conclusion: Our findings show that serum Pentraxine-3 levels are similar in patients with febrile convulsion and fever. In addition, it was concluded that Pentraxine-3 does not correlate with acute phase reactants, which are more commonly used.