Childhood seizures associated with febrile episodes are relatively common and represent the majority of childhood seizures. A febrile convulsion is defined as a seizure event in infancy or childhood, usually occurring between 6 months and 6 years of age, associated with fever but without any evidence of intracranial infection or defined pathologic or traumatic cause (Nabbout et al., 2002). Although the majority of patients do not develop epilepsy, the risk of developing subsequent afebrile seizures is 5 to 7 times higher in those with a history of febrile seizures compared to the general population (Annegers et al., 1987; Hedera et al., 2006).
The FEB1 locus maps to chromosome 8q13-q21.
Genetic Heterogeneity of Familial Febrile Seizures
See FEB2 (602477), caused by mutation in the HCN2 gene (602781) on chromosome 19p13; FEB3A (604403), caused by mutation in the SCN1A gene (182389) on chromosome 2q24; FEB4 (604352), caused by mutation in the ADGRV1 gene (602851) on chromosome 5q14; FEB8 (607681), caused by mutation in the GABRG2 gene (137164) on chromosome 5q31; and FEB11 (614418), caused by mutation in the CPA6 gene (609562) on chromosome 8q13.
Several loci for familial febrile seizures have been identified: see FEB3B (613863) on chromosome 2q24; FEB5 (609255) on chromosome 6q22-q24; FEB6 (609253) on chromosome 18p11; FEB7 (611515) on chromosome 21q22; FEB9 (611634) on chromosome 3p24.2-p23; and FEB10 (612637) on chromosome 3q26.
A phenotype termed 'generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus' (GEFS+; 604233) is a clinical subset of familial febrile convulsions in which affected individuals later develop afebrile seizures. GEFS+ is associated with mutations in several genes.
Deprez et al. (2009) provided a review of the genetics of epilepsy syndromes starting in the first year of life, and included a diagnostic algorithm. [from
OMIM]