Electroencephalographical evaluation in children with familial Mediterranean fever

Dr. Yunus Murat AKCABELEN, Electroencephalographical evaluation in children with familial Mediterranean fever, Abant Izzet Baysal University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Thesis of Graduation, Bolu, 2018 Introduction: This study was conducted to investigate the cranial involvement of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) focused particularly on electroencephalographic findings and seizures. Material and Method: Fourty five children with FMF nd 45 healthy children were enrolled from patients attending to Pediatrics outpatient clinic in İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Medicine. Children and their families were surveyed for the variables as the presence of FMF disease, age, sex, presence of cranial involvement, presence and duration of colchicine use, mutation status in genetic analysis, cigarette exposure, seizure trait, consanguineous marriage, familial FMF history, presence of an individual using colchicine, presence of an individual with neurological disease, seizure history. A preformed questionnaire implicated by a single physician was used to obtain the responses. Anthropometric and physiometric variables such as height, weight, head circumference, blood pressure measurements were gathered. Activation electroencephalography by sleep-deprivation was performed in all FMF children during attack free period. Electroencephalography was also performed for control group children. Results: Cranial involvement accompanying attacks was found in 51.1% of the patients. Electroencephalographic recordings were evaluated as abnormal in 53.3% versus 28.9% of the children with FMF and control groups, respectively. The ratio of children with abnormal electroencephalographic findings were significantly higher in FMF group than control group (p <0.05). Abnormal electroencephalographic abnormal findings were mostly located to the right hemisphere (58.3%) in children with FMF whereas abnormal findings were located to the right hemisphere only in a minority of control children (30.7%). This hemispheric selection were statistically higher in FMF children than control children (p <0.05). There was no significant difference in terms of electroencephalographic abnormalities when three groups were formed as FMF patients with cranial involvement, FMF patients without cranial involvement and control groups. Seizure frequency in two groups were found to be similar (p> 0.05). Passive smoking were higher in FMF children than control group (p <0.01). In addition, phosphorus levels (p <0.001), aspartate aminotransferase (p <0.01) and aminotransferase (p <0.05) levels in the patient group were significantly higher than control group. Conclusion: This controlled study highlighted the presence of neurological involvement as regards to electroencephalographic abnormalities in familial Mediterranean fever children for the first time in English literature. Further prospective and large scale studies should be conducted in order to clearly delineate the association between FMF and EEG abnormalities in children with FMF. Key Words: Familial Mediterranean fever, neurological involvement, electroencephalography, seizures