Magnetic resonance imaging in childhood epilepsy

One hundred and seventy children of chronic seizures with strong clinical suspicion of an underlying intracranial lesion as its cause were studied by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Maximum number of patients were between 6-12 years, males outnumbering females. Structural abnormalities were seen in 158 of the 170 patients. The study revealed tuberculoma as the commonest lesion in this series (n = 64) followed by cysticercosis (n = 27). Three patients were seen to have glioma. An interesting finding was disappearing lesion in 6 children. MRI proved to be an excellent modality in demonstrating and characterising the intracranial lesion.