Organic Disorders in Children with Epileptic Seizures

Abstract

1) Brain C-T scan was done in 1,005 epileptic children as one of the diagnostic methods, and 32% showed abnormal findings. 2) Infantile spasm showed abnormal scan most frequently at 52.9%, persistent subtle seizure 46.7%, simple partial epilepsy 37.7%, and myoclonic epilepsy 37.5%, in order of frequency. 3) In partial epilepsy the positive scan detection rate was 35.2% of the total, with simple partial epilepsy 37.7%, complex partial epilepsy 36.1% and secondary generalized epilepsy 33.5%. These rates are higher than those of generalized epilepsy (27.1%). 4) In generalized epilepsy, generalized tonic clonic showed abnormal scan in 26.1%, generalized tonic in 23.6%, generalized clonic in 20.5%, atypical absence in 15% and typical absence in none. 5) Brain tumor was detected in 2.18%. 6) Positive scan is commonly detected in seizures starting in young age group, and in epileptic patients with focal neurologic signs as well as focal EEG abnormality. 7) The curable lesions were brain tumor, some granulomas, and arachnoid cyst. 8) Brain C-T scan is an effective diagnostic method in epileptic children to identify structural abnormalities of the brain and to make sure that the abnormality does not progress, but it would be better to perform C-T scan case by case rather than as a routine diagnostic procedure.