Antecedents of Epilepsy and Seizures among Children Born at Extremely Low Gestational Age

Rachana Singh, Laurie M Douglass, T Michael O’Shea, Carl E Stafstrom, Elizabeth N Allred, Stephen Engelke, Bhavesh Shah, Alan Leviton, Timothy C Hereen, Karl C K Kuban, ELGAN Study Group

J Perinatol 2019; 39(6):774-783

PubMed Link

Of 888 children, 66 had epilepsy and 39 had seizures not associated with epilepsy. Epilepsy was associated with an indicator of low socio-economic status, maternal gestational fever, and early physiologic instability, postnatal exposure to hydrocortisone, cerebral white matter injury and severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Seizure without epilepsy was associated with indicators of placental infection and inflammation, and early neonatal hypoxemia. Though both profiles included indicators of infection and inflammation, the profile of risk factors for epilepsy included multiple indicators of endogenous vulnerability.

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