ABSTRACT
Fever is a common clinical
problem in pediatric practice. Increased body temperature in pediatric patients
with fever can be problematic. The diagnosis for the cause of fever is
necessary for planning for proper management of the patient. In case with high
fever, an important neurological presentation among pediatric patients is
seizure. In clinical practice, acute febrile seizure requires good diagnostic
approach. Several underlying pathologies can cause acute febrile seizure. In
tropical country, tropical infection can cause fever and it can further result
in acute febrile seizure in a pediatric patient Of several tropical infections,
dengue is a common infection that might cause acute febrile illness and acute
febrile seizure. There are some reports regarding the incidence of dengue
infection among the pediatric patients presenting with acute febrile seizure
Nevertheless, limited reports are available regarding the pediatric patients
with repeated acute febrile illness. In the present work, the author
retrospectively analyzed the clinical records of overall 60 pediatric patients
with repeated acute febrile seizure. The dengue serological test results among
these patients are reviewed. Based on the retrospective review, there are 6
cases with dengue seropositivity giving the incidence rate equal to 10 %. The
high incidence of dengue seropositivity among the pediatric patients with
repeated acute febrile seizure indicates that dengue should be listed in the
differential diagnosis for the pediatric patients presenting with repeated
acute febrile illness in our settings. Also, the similar consideration can be
applied for the other tropical settings.
The dengue serological test is recommended in diagnostic work-up for any
pediatric patients, in tropical setting, presenting with repeated acute febrile
seizure.
Key words: dengue, acute,
febrile, seizure, repeated, seropositivity