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. 2019 Oct;15(4):496-501.
doi: 10.3988/jcn.2019.15.4.496.

Elevated Serum Uric Acid in Benign Convulsions with Mild Gastroenteritis in Children

Il Han Yoo  1   2 , Woojoong Kim  3 , Jaeso Cho  4 , Hunmin Kim  5 , Byung Chan Lim  3 , Hee Hwang  1 , Jong Hee Chae  3 , Jieun Choi  6 , Ki Joong Kim  3
Affiliations

Elevated Serum Uric Acid in Benign Convulsions with Mild Gastroenteritis in Children

Il Han Yoo et al. J Clin Neurol. 2019 Oct.

Erratum in

Abstract

Background and purpose: To identify whether serum uric acid levels are significantly higher in patients with benign convulsion associated with mild gastroenteritis (CwG) than in patients with acute gastroenteritis.

Methods: This retrospective study compared the serum levels of uric acid between CwG, acute gastroenteritis, and febrile seizure after correcting for the varying degree of mild dehydration using serum HCO₃- levels. We also compared the serum uric acid levels between patients with CwG and febrile seizures in order to exclude the effect of seizures on uric acid.

Results: This study included 154 CwG patients (age range 0.73-3.19 years), 2,938 patients with acute gastroenteritis, and 154 patients with febrile seizure. The serum uric acid level was significantly higher in CwG patients than in patients with acute gastroenteritis [9.79±2.16 mg/dL vs. 6.04±2.3 mg/dL (mean±SD), p<0.001]. This difference was also significant after correcting for dehydration. The serum uric acid level was significantly higher in CwG patients than in dehydration-corrected acute gastroenteritis patients (9.79±2.16 mg/dL vs. 6.67±2.48 mg/dL, p<0.001). The serum uric acid level was not elevated in patients with febrile seizure.

Conclusions: We have confirmed that serum uric acid is elevated in CwG patients even after correcting for their dehydration status, and that this was not a postictal phenomenon. Highly elevated serum uric acid in CwG could be a useful clinical indicator of CwG in patients with acute gastroenteritis.

Keywords: gastroenteritis; seizure; uric acid.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Boxplot of serum uric acid level of the three groups (CwG, acute gastroenteritis, and febrile seizure). *p<0.05. CwG: benign convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Serum UA level in patients with CwG and acute gastroenteritis after 1:4 matching by HCO3− levels. A: Histogram of serum UA in CwG and HCO3− matched AGE patients. B: Distribution of serum UA in CwG and HCO−3-matched acute gastroenteritis patients shown in a density plot. Dashed lines indicate mean serum UA levels of each group (*p<0.05). CwG: benign convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis, UA: uric acid.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Receiver operating characteristics curve of serum uric acid level's capacity to predict CwG over HCO3−-matched acute gastroenteritis patients. Optimal cutoff value is depicted in a red dot. AUC: area under the curve, CwG: benign convulsions associated with mild gastroenteritis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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