Febrile Seizures Related to Genes

Febrile (doctor speak for “related to fever”) seizures are seizures that happen in kids who have a fever. Up to 5 percent of children have at least one of these and – while scary for parents – they are usually harmless and do not require treatment.

Finally, here is where we have personal experience (okay, as you will see throughout this blog, we have way too much personal neuro experience!). When I was pregnant with my second child, my daughter had a cold and a fever. She was uncomfortable, so I was alternating Tylenol with Motrin to keep it down. I was on bedrest. My mother mentioned that she was hot again and since she wasn't due for another dose for 20 minutes, I started to wipe her down with a cool cloth.

That's when it happened. She went sort of rigid, but limp at the same time, if that makes sense. She didn't foam at the mouth or convulse, but it would have been easy to see she was seizing, even if I had never seen a seizure before.

I asked my mother to call 911. She kept saying, "What? Why?" and by the time I explained it, the seizure was over. I checked my daughter's temperature and it was over 104. Ugh. We headed for the E.R.

That was her only seizure and she doesn't appear to have any residual problems from it.

Recently, some scientists in France published a study in the medical journal, Neurology, where they talked about two genes they believe are linked to febrile seizures.

They studied 51 individuals in four generations of the same family. Thirteen of the people in this family had seizures related to fevers in childhood before the age of seven. Six of those 13 later developed epilepsy.

By comparing the 13 family members who had a history of febrile seizures with 13 other family members who had never had seizures, the researchers found that the family members who had had seizures had some similarities on two chromosomes, 3 and 18.

Previous studies have also found that febrile seizures can be associated with chromosomes.

The researchers hope that by understanding more about febrile seizures, the can improve the treatment and possibly even prevent the disorder.

Technology Helps Surgeons Pinpoint Seizures

One of the newer advances in brain imaging is magnetoencephalography (MEG). I have to say, this technology is really cool. Finally, there is a tool that can give an incredibly precise picture of a seizure focus, which is a fancy way of saying it shows where a seizure is happening. MEG is different from other imaging techniques because it measures magnetic signals in the brain and then creates a 3-dimensional picture so surgeons can pinpoint exactly what area to remove if surgery is in the cards. Older techniques rely on electric signals and are helpful, but MEG might be the most promising diagnostic technology to come around for epilepsy in a long time.

What I most love about MEG, though, is that the magnetic signals it measures come from the neurons (brain cells) themselves. Awesome!

Now, saying MEG measures magnetic signals and that this is revolutionary probably sounds quite confusing; that’s because most of us have heard about magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which also has “magnet” in the term. However, there is a key difference: MRI uses a giant magnet to send magnetic waves through the body, and MEG measures magnetic signals coming from the neurons themselves. In other words, in MRI the magnet is an external thing – part of the device – whereas in MEG, the magnetic signals come from our own brain cells. In addition, while MRI gives quite a spiffy picture of the soft tissues, the images it produces are primarily 2-dimensional. Clinical use of MEG technology is not widespread yet, but my beloved hubby does use it where he works and we're both excited about its capabilities.