Abstract
We investigated seizures in 22 children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), eight of whom had seizures associated with fever. The follow-up period was 5-18 years. The onset of seizures ranged from 1 to 4 years of age, and the total number of seizures was one to three in all cases. Four cases had seizures twice within 24 hours. None had seizures after 5 years of age. In two of the eight cases, the seizures may have caused by hypoglycemia or hyponatremia, in the remaining six they were considered to be febrile seizures. Three of them had first- degree relatives with febrile seizures. Electroencephalogram was recorded in five cases, with normal results in all of them. One case with febrile status developed localization-related epilepsy later. None showed developmental delay during follow-up. Although seizures in CAH have been ascribed to hypoglycemia and/ or metabolic disorders (hyponatremia), our findings implicate unknown factors in the pathogenesis such as excess secretion of corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) under stress, prolonged elevation of CRF during fetus life and linkage between CAH and febrile seizures on the chromosome 6.
