Comparison of clinical characteristics and disease burden of febrile seizures in children with and without COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: Febrile seizures (FS) are the most common seizure disorder in children and a common neurologic complication in children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to identify differences in clinical characteristics and disease burden between FS with and without COVID-19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of medical data at our hospital from December 2019 to July 2023, focusing on hospitalized patients under the age of 14 diagnosed with FS who underwent COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were employed to compare the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 groups in terms of clinical characteristics and disease burden. RESULTS: A total of 514 patients were included, with 106 testing positive for COVID-19 and 408 testing negative. Patients with COVID-19 were older (34.87 ± 6.16 vs. 28.61 ± 11.35 months, P < 0.001) and had a higher proportion of males (79.2% vs. 62.3%, P = 0.001). The COVID-19 group had longer seizure durations (4.57 ± 4.38 vs. 3.22 ± 2.91 min, P = 0.006) and more complex FS (25.5% vs. 15.9%, P = 0.022). Laboratory tests showed lower lymphocyte counts in the COVID-19 group (1.87 ± 1.48 vs. 2.75 ± 1.51 × 103/µL, P < 0.001) and higher creatine kinase levels (158.49 ± 82.89 vs. 110.89 ± 56.11 U/L, P < 0.001). No significant differences were found in hospital costs, length of hospitalization, and intensive care unit admissions. CONCLUSION: Clinicians should be knowledgeable about the distinct clinical characteristics of FS in children with COVID-19. Despite distinct features, the prognosis remains favorable and does not require excessive intervention. Ongoing monitoring and research are needed to fully understand the impact of COVID-19 on FS and optimize management strategies.

Clinical features of febrile seizures in children with COVID-19: an observational study from a tertiary care hospital in China.

Background: Febrile seizures are a common neurologic manifestation in children with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Compared to seasonal respiratory viruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a pronounced neurological impact, with the result that febrile seizures with COVID-19 may exhibit unique clinical features. Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective study in a tertiary care hospital in China. We collected medical record information on febrile seizures with COVID-19, including demographic characteristics, clinical features, laboratory tests, and disease burden. Subsequently, the data were then analyzed descriptively. Results: A total of 103 children diagnosed with febrile seizures and positive COVID-19 PCR results were included in our study. Among them, 81 (78.6%) were males and 22 (21.4%) were females. The age of onset of febrile seizures ranged from 14 to 57 months, with a mean age of 34.9 ± 6.24 months. Complex febrile seizures were observed in 34 (33%) cases. Antiseizure medications were administered to 24 (23.3%) patients. Laboratory tests showed a white blood cell count of (27.05 ± 8.20) × 103/µl, a neutrophil count of (20.09 ± 5.66) × 103/µl and a lymphocyte count of (6.44 ± 1.86) × 103/µl. A creatine kinase level was significantly elevated, with a mean value of (412.00 ± 158.96) U/L. The mean length of stay was 4.36 days. Twelve patients (11.7%) required intensive care services, but there were no deaths or patients remaining on antiseizure medications after discharge. Conclusion: In the post-epidemic era of COVID-19, pediatric clinicians should be aware of the changing clinical features of febrile seizures associated with COVID-19. The average age of onset has increased, with a higher proportion of males. Length of stay and hospitalization costs did not increase significantly. The prognosis remained favorable, although a small number of children required intensive care services during the acute phase.

Risk Factors for Benign Convulsions With Mild Gastroenteritis.

Objective: To investigate the risk factors for benign convulsions with mild gastroenteritis (CwG) and provide a basis for the early identification and diagnosis. Method: We selected children with CwG and acute gastroenteritis in the same period who attended the pediatric department of the Liyang People's Hospital from June 2018 to June 2021. A retrospective analysis of the general data, clinical characteristics, and laboratory test results of the two groups was performed. Finally, we conducted a multifactorial logistic regression analysis to derive the risk factors for CwG. Results: A total of 82 children were included in the CwG and 93 children were included in the acute gastroenteritis group. Univariate analysis showed no significant differences in gender, age, vomiting, diarrhea, neutrophil, lymphocyte, hemoglobin, platelets, and serum calcium. Statistically significant differences were found in onset season, rotavirus, white blood cells, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine transaminase, serum sodium, and uric acid. Finally, multifactorial logistic regression analysis showed rotavirus (OR, 3.042, 95% CI, 1.116-8.289, p = 0.030), serum sodium (OR, 0.811, 95% CI, 0.684-0.962, p = 0.016) and uric acid (OR, 1.018, 95% CI, 1.012-1.024, p = 0.000) to be independent risk factors. Conclusion: Characteristics of gastroenteritis symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea cannot be used to predict the onset of CwG. Rotavirus is an independent risk factor for CwG, and decreased serum sodium and increased uric acid can be used as early warning indicators for CwG.

Object-Based Reliable Visual Navigation for Mobile Robot.

Visual navigation is of vital importance for autonomous mobile robots. Most existing practical perception-aware based visual navigation methods generally require prior-constructed precise metric maps, and learning-based methods rely on large training to improve their generality. To improve the reliability of visual navigation, in this paper, we propose a novel object-level topological visual navigation method. Firstly, a lightweight object-level topological semantic map is constructed to release the dependence on the precise metric map, where the semantic associations between objects are stored via graph memory and topological organization is performed. Then, we propose an object-based heuristic graph search method to select the global topological path with the optimal and shortest characteristics. Furthermore, to reduce the global cumulative error, a global path segmentation strategy is proposed to divide the global topological path on the basis of active visual perception and object guidance. Finally, to achieve adaptive smooth trajectory generation, a Bernstein polynomial-based smooth trajectory refinement method is proposed by transforming trajectory generation into a nonlinear planning problem, achieving smooth multi-segment continuous navigation. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of our method on both simulation and real-world scenarios. The proposed method also obtains better navigation success rate (SR) and success weighted by inverse path length (SPL) than the state-of-the-art methods.

Comparison of clinical characteristics between cluster and isolated seizures associated with benign convulsions with mild gastroenteritis.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Cluster seizures have not been specifically reported in benign convulsions with mild gastroenteritis (CWG), which are usually considered to have serious outcomes. We aimed to identify the differences between cluster and isolated seizures associated with CWG. METHOD: We retrospectively analyzed the medical data of children hospitalized and diagnosed with CWG from May 2018 to December 2020. A case-control study approach was adopted and patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into a cluster seizures group and an isolated seizures group. Then, the clinical characteristics of the patients in the two groups were compared. RESULTS: 30 patients（36.6%） were in the cluster seizures group while 52 patients (63.4%) were in the isolated seizures group. The highest incidence of CWG occurs between 12 and 24 months of age. While serum sodium and calcium were within the normal range for both groups, they were lower in the cluster seizures group compared to the isolated seizures group (136.74 ± 2.78 vs 134.65 ± 2.85, P = 0.002; 2.43 ± 0.13 vs 2.37 ± 0.14, P = 0.04). A total of 123 seizures was recorded during the research period and 25 were treated with anticonvulsant drugs. The outcome of anticonvulsant therapy and the prognosis showed no differences between the two groups. CONCLUSION: Clinicians need to be highly alert to the possibility of cluster seizures in CWG patients who have reduced sodium and calcium. Besides, CWG patients with cluster seizures do not require excessive investigations, overuse of anticonvulsant therapy compared to those with isolated seizures.