Antecedents of seizure disorders in early childhood
K. B. Nelson and J. H. Ellenberg
One or more nonfebrile seizures occurred between the ages of 1 month and 7
years in eight per 1000 white and in nine per 1000 black children enrolled
in a large prospective study. We examined hundreds of prenatal and
perinatal factors as predictors of childhood seizure disorders. Congenital
malformations of the fetus (cerebral and noncerebral), family history of
certain neurologic disorders, and neonatal seizures were the major
predictors identified. Forty percent of children with postneonatal seizures
and 68% of children with minor motor seizures had one or more of these risk
factors compared with 21% of the seizure-free population. More than half of
the children with minor motor seizures and a third of the infants with
neonatal seizures had congenital malformations. Based on the prenatal and
perinatal factors examined, prediction of postneonatal seizures carried a
high rate of false-positive identification, indicating that our knowledge
of the etiology of childhood seizure disorders is still very limited.
