Computerized transverse axial tomography in epilepsy

Abstract

Computerized transverse axial tomography (CTAT) of the brain has been used routinely, as well as the EEG, to study patients with epilepsy. In patients with the various electro-clinical types of epilepsy -- primary, secondary, and partial -- it gave accurate information about the frequency, topography, and severity of morphological abnormalities. In the various types of organic lesion -- tumor, posttraumatic, postischemic, postinfectious, etc. -- it markedly increased the ability to establish etiology. Especially notable was the finding of (1) tumor in 16% of patients over 20 years of age, and (2) the determination of a type of pathology that has received little attention -- postischemic occipital porencephaly probably due to occlusion of the posterior cerebral artery, either at birth or in early infancy.