Summary
Ten children with simple febrile seizures whose ages ranged between 8 months and 5 years; 13 children with complicated febrile seizures whose ages ranged between 5 months and 3 years; 17 children with afebrile seizures whose ages ranged between 14 months and 14 years and a control group of 10 healthy children (6 males and females) who have never had any central nervous system infection before, were examined in this study. The serum prolactin levels were measured twice (interictal and postictal) in the groups of patients and once in the control group. The postictal prolactin levels were significantly high in are the groups of patients (p<0.01) compared to the control groups whereas the basal prolactin levels did not differ significantly from the control group. Postictal prolactin levels were significantly high in the epileptic group (69.41 ±37.76 ng/ml) compared to the levels in patients with simple and complicated febrile seizures (20.46±18.68 ng/ml and 38.28±16.29 ng/ml respectively). According to these results, it is concluded that the serum prolactin levels may be the indicator for differentiating epilepsy from other seizures.
Key words: Epilepsy, Febrile Seizures, Prolactin, Seizures