Background: Seizures are common in the neonatal period and may be the first sign of neonatal dysfunction. The incidence of neonatal seizures has been reported to be 1.5 to 3 in 1,000 full term live births.Aim of the Work: To assess the levels of serum calcium and magnesium in neonates with neonatal convulsion.Patients and Methods: The study includes 100 full term neonates with neonatal convulsions and 100 healthy full-term neonates as controls. Serum calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and random blood sugar and complete blood count were estimated in all neonates.Results: There was significant decrease in total and ionized calcium and magnesium in convulsions group compared to control group (p0.05). Total calcium can detect convulsion at a cutoff 7.3 mg/dl with sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV was 31%, 100%, 100% and 59% respectively (p< 0.001). Also, Ionized calcium can detect convulsion at cutoff 4.1 mg/dl with sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV was 53%, 97%, 94.6% and 67.4% respectively (p< 0.001). Magnesium can detect convulsion at cutoff 1.3 mg/dl with sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV was 20%, 100%, 100% and 55.56% respectively (p=0.015). Random blood sugar can detect convulsion at cutoff 40 mg/dl with sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV was 41%,95%,89% and 61.7% respectively (p<0.001).Conclusions: This study showed that hypoglycemia, hypocalcemia, and hypomagnesemia were significantly associated with neonatal seizures. A thorough biochemical work up is necessary in all cases of neonatal seizure for early detection and effective treatment of biochemical abnormalities in neonatal seizure.
Mahmoud et al. (Wed,) studied this question.