Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Aim Febrile seizures (FS) are the most common type of seizure encountered in childhood. Growing evidence suggests that inflammatory processes may contribute to their pathogenesis. Recently, easily accessible biomarkers derived from routine blood tests, such as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), prognostic nutritional index (PNI), and C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio (CAR), have attracted interest as potential indicators of disease risk. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between these biomarkers and febrile seizures in children.Material and Method We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 401 children, including 200 patients with FS and 201 controls without a history of febrile seizures (table 1). Demographic characteristics and laboratory findings were collected, and NLR, PNI, and CAR values were calculated from routine laboratory measurements (table 1). Differences between groups were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods (table 2). Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors independently associated with FS, while receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to assess the diagnostic performance of the investigated biomarkers.Results Children with FS showed significantly higher neutrophil counts, NLR, and CAR values, together with lower lymphocyte counts and PNI values compared with controls (all p < 0.05) (table 1). The proportion of males was also significantly higher in the FS group (62.5% vs. 47.8%, p=0.004). After adjustment for potential confounders, younger age, male sex, and higher NLR remained independently associated with FS (table 3). In contrast, CAR and PNI were no longer statistically significant in the multivariable model. Among the evaluated biomarkers, NLR demonstrated the best discriminative performance, although its overall predictive ability remained modest (AUC = 0.647) (figure 1).Conclusion Our findings suggest that NLR is more closely associated with febrile seizures than CAR or PNI and may serve as a useful adjunctive marker in clinical practice. Nevertheless, its limited diagnostic accuracy indicates that it should be interpreted alongside clinical findings rather than used as an independent diagnostic tool.Abstract OP–220 Table 1Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients vs controlsParametersPatientsControlspGender (n, %)FemaleMale75 (37.5%)125 (62.5%)105 (52.2%)96 (47.8%)0.004Age (months), Mean±SD27.48 ± 18.8829.97 ± 18.550.167Weight (kg), Mean±SD14.37 ± 6.3414.02 ± 5.120.878CAR, Median (IQR)1.98 (0.47–5.48)0.95 (0.22–5.26)0.037PNI, Median (IQR)58.72 (53.45–67.55)62.60 (56.20–72.20)0.002NLR, Median (IQR)2.73 (1.33–4.92)1.46 (0.73–3.00)<0.001*Mann Whitney U test, statistical significance p<0.05Abstract OP–220 Figure 1ROC curves of NLR, PNI, and CAR for predicting febrile seizures. NLR showed the highest area under the curve (AUC=0.647), followed by PNI (AUC=0.589) and CAR (AUC=0.560). The diagonal dashed line indicates random classification performanceAbstract OP–220 Table 2Inflammatory and nutritional indices of study groupsVariableNonDrug-userUserpFS episode number1 (1–2)2 (2–3)<0.001CAR1.98 (0.40–4.11)2.16 (0.51–5.96)0.241PNI57.20 (53.45–66.10)60.35 (53.90–69.35)0.384NLR2.92 (1.33–5.97)2.65 (1.41–4.16)0.101*Chi-square test, statistical significance p<0.05Abstract OP–220 Table 3Multivariable logistic regression analysis identifying independent predictors of the outcomePredictorOR95% CIpInterpretationAge0.8060.696–0.9320.004IndependentMale sex1.7521.162–2.6410.007IndependentCAR1.0010.980–1.0220.947NSPNI0.9870.967–1.0070.196NSNLR1.1181.029–1.2150.009Independent
Source: BMJ Paediatrics Open
Institution: İstanbul Başakşehir Çam ve Sakura Şehir Hastanesi
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225334331