United States: Medical personnel in neonatal ICUs should pay attention to seizures in newborns because it signals that these infants might develop epilepsy later in life.
More about the news
Following birth, seizures in newborns usually lead to epilepsy diagnosis during childhood or adulthood.
Neonatal seizures affect more than twenty percent (20%) of babies who later become epileptic before reaching age 22, although only greater than one percent (1%) of infants without seizures develop epilepsy.
According to Dr. Jeanette Tinggaard, the research team lead, a child neurologist with Copenhagen University Hospital – Risghospitalet, “The risk of epilepsy was highest in the first year of life but remained significantly elevated throughout childhood and adolescence,” US News reported.
About the condition
Neurological conditions associated with epilepsy cause brain nerve cells called neurons to produce persistent electric hyperactivity that triggers seizures, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
A NICU placement leads to seizures, which stand as the common neurological event affecting newborns, according to researcher background information.
The condition affects between 1 to 5 newborns out of every 1,000 infants born alive. A total of 1.3 million children born in Denmark between 1997 and 2018 received medical data examination.
Researchers identified 1996 children among those studied who experienced infantile seizures before reaching adulthood.
The occurrence of epilepsy before 1 year amounts to eleven percent (11%) of seizure-afflicted infants, while five percent (5%) developed the condition when they reached ages 1 to 5.
Statistics show that three percent (3%) of children developed epilepsy when they reached ages 5 to 10, while more than one percent (1%) received an epilepsy diagnosis between 10 and 22, US News reported.
Newborns with seizures combined with brain problems such as stroke bleeding or brain malformations faced more than a 100 percent rise in developing epilepsy, according to research findings.
A low Apgar score led babies with seizures to present a 50 percent higher chance of developing epilepsy.
The Apgar score evaluates newborn health through measurements of appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration scores directly after birth.
According to Tinggaard, these cases should be examined further because seizures do not necessarily lead to epilepsy in newborns.
“Importantly, four out of five neonatal survivors with a history of neonatal seizures did not develop epilepsy, and we suggest future studies to explore a potential genetic predisposition,” Tinggaard added.