Neurocysticercosis in 578 black epileptic patients

Abstract

In a study of 578 epileptic patients at the Ga-Rankuwa Hospital, 281 had abnormal computed tomography (CT) of the brain (48.6%), and in 162 (average age 32 years) there was evidence of cysticercosis (57.6%). In 68 of the infected patients (41.9%) active cysts were seen on CT. Neurocysticercosis, either active or inactive, was thus implicated in 28% of this group of epileptic patients, which emphasises the importance of this disease in the causation of epilepsy in the black population of South Africa.