Postictal Assessment of Serum Copeptin Level in Children with Convulsion

Abstract

Background: The most prevalent form of childhood seizure disease is febrile convulsion. Measuring copeptin has been demonstrated to be helpful in a number of therapeutic indications for numerous diseases. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic role of serum copeptin in descriminating febrile convulsions from convulsions without fever. Patients and methods: This case-control study was carried out in Paediatric Department at Zagazig University Hospital and Kafr Sakr General hospital. A total of 51 patients were recruited and were divided into three groups; febrile convulsions group (A) included 17 patients, convulsions without fever group (B) included 17 patients and fever only (group C) included 17 patients. All the children were subjected to history taking, clinical examination and laboratory investigations including hematocrit, white blood count with differential, serum sodium, serum glucose, serum calcium level, C-reactive protein (CRP) and Serum copeptin. Results: There was no significant difference between groups regarding age and sex, there was a significant difference between the three studied groups as regards BMI (kg/m2) (17.55 ± 2.14 vs 16.88 ± 3.84 vs 14.92 ± 2.67, p = 0.03).There was no significant difference in copeptin levels between the 3 groups (p value >0.05). There was non significant difference with negative correlation between group C as regards copeptin with CRP (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Circulating copeptin has no diagnostic role in descriminating febrile convulsions from convulsions without fever.