International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics | January 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 1 Page 120
International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics
Bruntha PJ et al. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2021 Jan;8(1):120-126
http://www.ijpediatrics.com pISSN 2349-3283 | eISSN 2349-3291
Original Research Article
A study of prevalence of abnormal EEG and its association between
various clinical presentations of atypical febrile seizures
Bruntha Priyavathani J.
1
, Sriram Pothapregada
1
*, Anuradha Varadhan
2
,
Suresh C. Thirunavukarasu
3
INTRODUCTION
Febrile seizure (FS) is one of the most common
neurological disorders in children. The incidence of FS in
India varies between 5-10% and it is 8.8% in Japan, and
14% in Guam.
1-4
Variation in prevalence relates to differences in case
definitions, ascertainment methods, geographical
variation, and cultural factors. FS is classified into simple
and complex febrile seizures based on various clinical
features such as duration, type, number of episodes, post
ictal neurological status and so on.
5
As it is primarily
based on history obtained from caregivers, it could be
eventually subjective. 2 to 10% of children who have
febrile seizures will subsequently develop epilepsy,
especially atypical febrile seizure is an independent risk
factor for future epilepsy.
6-9
Quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) is the
mathematical processing and transformation of digitally
recorded EEG into a format using various algorithms,
1
Department of Paediatrics, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Puducherry, India
2
Department of Paediatrics, Rajiv Gandhi Government Women and Children Hospital, Puducherry, India
3
Department of Neurology, Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital and Post Graduate Institute, Puducherry,
India
Received: 30 October 2020
Accepted: 10 December 2020
*Correspondence:
Dr. Sriram Pothapregada,
E-mail: psriram_ped@yahoo.co.in
Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
Background: Quantitative EEG is a rapidly emerging tool in the diagnosis and follow up of various neurological
disorders and can act as predictive marker for subsequent epilepsy in children with complex febrile seizure. The
present study aimed to estimate the prevalence of abnormal electroencephalogram (EEG) and to find the association
between Quantitative EEG (qEEG) and various clinical features of atypical febrile seizures(AFS).
Methods: EEG was recorded along with clinical features including the age at onset, duration of episode, number of
episodes in a day, type of seizure and the recurrences from the children aged between 6-60 months with atypical
febrile seizures. EEG recordings were classified into Normal and abnormal EEG with epileptiform changes by the
expert interpretation and the distribution of above said clinical features in the both groups were analyzed. It is also
attempted to find the association between qEEG and few of the clinical features.
Results: Prevalence of abnormal EEG in atypical febrile seizures was 33.9%. There were no significant differences in
the distribution of abnormal EEG and their association with various clinical features of AFS. Significantly increased
absolute power of θ and α waves were recorded from the frontal montages in the children with epileptiform changes
in the EEG.
Conclusions: qEEG changes can be also considered as marker of severity of febrile seizure episodes. Many
prospective studies with long-term follow up are required to establish the predictability of future epilepsy by qEEG.
Keywords: Atypical febrile seizures, Febrile seizures, Prevalence, Quantitative EEG
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20205517