Clinical predictors of computed tomography in epileptic children

The purpose of this study was to determine which clinical characteristics correlated with abnormal computed tomographic (CT) scans in epileptic children. Thirty variables were examined. Of these, four variables (presence of inherited or congenital disease, focal motor findings, developmental delay, and early onset of seizures) correlated with CT scan outcome. Partial seizures per se were not highly associated with abnormal CT scans. A crude decision rule based on these results correctly classified the CT scan result in 94% of the patients who were clinically predicted not to have a parenchymal abnormality.