Background:

We developed and validated a Spanish seizure screen for children based on a previously validated English seizure screen that could be administered by a trained research assistant in a 2-step process, approximating the clinical diagnostic process of a pediatric epilepsy specialist. This questionnaire was designed to study seizure prevalence in a research population of children at risk for epilepsy.

Methods:

Spanish-speaking parents of children 6 months to 17 years old were recruited from the pediatric neurology clinics at Boston Medical Center and interviewed using a computerized questionnaire. A computerized algorithm of parent responses rendered a seizure classification of positive or negative. Blinded to questionnaire results, pediatric neurologists served as the diagnostic gold standard, ranking each patient event using a 4-level scale based on clinical history and examination: (1) not likely, (2) indeterminate, (3) probable, and (4) almost certain where rankings of 3 or 4 lead to a diagnosis of seizure.

Results:

The questionnaire was completed by 163 enrolled parents. The seizure screen demonstrated a 94.2% sensitivity and 93.7% specificity for identifying seizures. The positive predictive value was 87.5%, and the negative predictive value was 97.2%.

Conclusions:

This pediatric seizure questionnaire was both sensitive and specific for detecting clinically confirmed seizures. This tool may be useful to clinicians and researchers in screening large populations of children, decreasing the time and cost of added neurologic assessments.

中文翻译：

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用于检测西班牙语家庭儿童癫痫发作的新型家长问卷

背景：

我们基于之前经过验证的英语癫痫筛查，开发并验证了针对儿童的西班牙癫痫筛查，该筛查可以由训练有素的研究助理在两步过程中进行管理，近似于儿科癫痫专家的临床诊断过程。该问卷旨在研究有癫痫风险的儿童研究人群的癫痫发作率。

方法：

从波士顿医学中心的儿科神经病学诊所招募了 6 个月至 17 岁儿童的讲西班牙语的父母，并使用计算机问卷进行了采访。父母反应的计算机化算法使癫痫发作分类为阳性或阴性。对问卷结果视而不见，儿科神经科医生作为诊断金标准，使用基于临床病史和检查的 4 级量表对每个患者事件进行排序：(1) 不太可能，(2) 不确定，(3) 可能，以及 (4) ) 几乎可以肯定，3 或 4 的排名会导致癫痫的诊断。

结果：

问卷由 163 名登记的家长完成。癫痫筛查显示识别癫痫发作的敏感性为 94.2%，特异性为 93.7%。阳性预测值为87.5%，阴性预测值为97.2%。

结论：

这份儿科癫痫调查问卷对于检测临床确诊的癫痫发作既敏感又特异。该工具可能有助于临床医生和研究人员筛查大量儿童，减少额外神经系统评估的时间和成本。