ABSTRACT

Objectives:

Febrile seizures are the most common seizure type in childhood. Febrile seizures plus (FS+) is a recently identified epilepsy syndrome characterized by febrile and afebrile seizures that may persist beyond age six years. We compared phenotypic features and family histories of children with FS+ a n d febrile seizures.

Patients and Methods:

Thirty-five children (23 boys, 12 girls; mean age 9 years; range 7 to 13 years) with a diagnosis of FS+ according to the criteria proposed by Scheffer and Berkovic were retrospectively evaluated with respect to sex, age of seizure onset, seizure characteristics, and family history and compared with 35 children (20 boys, 15 girls; mean age 8.2 years; range 7 to 12 years) with febrile seizures. Results: No significant differences were found between the two groups with respect to sex, age of seizure onset, and the occurrence of febrile and afebrile seizures in family members. None of the pedigrees had multiple affected members.

Conclusion:

The results of this study suggest that phenotypic characteristics of children with FS+ are quite heterogeneous and do not always differ from those of children with febrile seizures