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Recently, an association between a regulatory polymorphism in the gene encoding the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1beta and febrile convulsions (FC) has been reported. In this study we attempted to confirm these findings in a sample consisting of 99 FC patients and 126 ethnically matched controls. Since about 3% of all FC patients experience unprovoked seizures (epilepsy) later during life we furthermore genotyped 43 patients with non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy who reported a history of FC. In both samples we failed to show an association between the IL-1beta polymorphism and an increased risk for FC. We only found a trend towards an increased frequency and carriage of the putative IL-1beta susceptibility allele two in a sub-sample of 43 FC patients who reported a positive family history for seizures in first and/or second degree relatives. However, these trends did not reach statistical significance., (Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.)