Evaluation of Plasma Melatonin Levels in Children With Afebrile and Febrile Seizures.

BACKGROUND: Melatonin modulates central nervous system neuronal activity. We compared the melatonin levels of patients with febrile and afebrile seizures during and after seizure with those of healthy controls. METHODS: We enrolled 59 individuals with afebrile and febrile seizures (mean age, 6.09 ± 4.46 years) and 28 age-, sex-, and weight-matched healthy children. Melatonin levels were measured near the time of a seizure (0 to 1 hour) and at 12 and 24 hours post-seizure, and control melatonin levels were measured from a single venous blood sample. RESULTS: Plasma melatonin levels increased during seizures in the study group (P < 0.001). Post-seizure plasma melatonin levels were significantly lower in the study group than in the control group (P < 0.05). Plasma melatonin levels did not differ between patients with afebrile seizures who had and had not used antiepileptic drugs. Daytime (8 AM to 8 PM) and nighttime (8 PM to 8 AM) post-seizure melatonin levels were not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: Melatonin levels were lower in pediatric patients prone to seizures than in healthy children and increased during seizures. Further research is needed to test the role of melatonin in the pathophysiology and treatment of epilepsy.

Scientific publications in pediatrics over the last ten years in Turkey and worldwide.

In keeping with the large area of interest comprised within the field of pediatrics, the number and diversity of publications in this field has gradually increased over the last ten years in our country as well as worldwide. The objective of this paper is to offer an analysis of the status of pediatrics publications during those ten years. The publications analyzed were listed in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science and/or published in journals included in the Science Citation Index, the Science Citation Index Expanded and the Social Sciences Citation Index. All of these publications appeared in journals in which at least one pediatrics specialist published between the years 2004 and 2013. It may be seen that Turkey is in fifth place worldwide in terms of the number of studies published in these journals, with 6,134 such publications. The conclusion is that it is necessary for more Turkish studies to be multicenter, to involve international participation and to receive more citations; importance must be attached to the objective of transforming of the knowledge produced by Turkish researchers into a greater number of publications of increased quality.

A neonatal thrombosis patient treated successfully with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator.

UNLABELLED: Herein we report an asphyctic preterm neonate with respiratory distress and prothrombotic risk factors that responded positively to rtPA treatment following 2 attacks of acute thrombosis. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None declared.