title: Febrile convulsions after 5 years of age: long-term follow-up.
abstract: In order to examine the natural history of febrile convulsions occurring after 5 years of age, we studied 44 children in whom febrile convulsions persisted after 5 years of age (group 1) and compared their development of unprovoked seizures with a group of 195 children in whom febrile convulsions occurred before 5 years of age (group 2). All subjects of group 1 were re-evaluated at the mean age of 13.4+/-1.7 years. The children in group 2 were followed up until they reached the same mean age as children in group 1 (13.1+/-2.3 years). In group 1, we found a higher percentage of unprovoked seizures than in children with febrile convulsions with onset before 5 years of age (18.1% vs 7.4%, P < .05). Our data suggest that children with febrile convulsions after 5 years of age probably must be considered as a group of patients at risk of developing unprovoked seizures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Chieti, Italy. chiarelli@unich.it
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verrotti
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Giuva
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cutarella
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Morgese
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chiarelli
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000150:complications*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012640:Seizures / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology*