Immunoglobulin concentrations in patients with a history of febrile convulsions prior to the development of epilepsy.

Serum IgA levels may be depressed in patients with epilepsy. Children with epilepsy and a previous history of febrile convulsions are especially prone to IgA depression. In this report serum immunoglobulin levels were determined in 25 young adults with a history of febrile convulsions and of a subsequent development of epilepsy. Samples were drawn on the average 15.8 years after the first febrile convulsion. Immunoglobulin concentrations in serum did not differ significantly from the serum immunoglobulin concentrations in a control group of patients with epilepsy comparable regarding age, sex, type of epilepsy and drug therapy, but without previous febrile convulsions. Thus the IgA depression in children with febrile convulsions and a subsequent diagnosis of epilepsy is presumably temporary.