A Cross-sectional Study to Describe Utility of Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte Ratio and Combination of C-reactive Protein and Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte Ratio among Children with Febrile Seizure
Introduction: Inflammatory markers are increased among children with febrile seizure (FS); whereas the efficacy of the combination of C-reactive protein (CRP) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) among children with FS is not known. The aim of this study is to estimate and determine the correlation between CRP, NLR, and C-reactive protein and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (C-NLR) among case and control groups, and to determine the better predictor of inflammatory marker among children with FS.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the pediatric department of a tertiary care hospital, Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya, for 2 months. During the study period, 160 children aged between 6 months and 5 years were included, 80 children with FS were considered as cases and the remaining 80 children who had febrile illness without seizures were controlled. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and Pearson correlation were used. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to compare NLR, CRP, and C-NLR and to predict their value among children with FS.
Results: The mean value of CRP (1.58 ± 2.27) values was significantly higher among controls as compared to cases (3.46 ± 6.06) with a p-value of < 0.001. A positive correlation was found between CRP and C-NLR (0.719). In ROC curve analysis, it was observed that the area under the curve (AUC) for NLR (0.713) was higher as compared to CRP and C-NLR.
Conclusion: NLR was comparatively higher among children with FS as compared to the control group and NLR has emerged as a better inflammatory marker among children with FS.
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