[Etiological diagnosis of epilepsy: value of computerized axial tomography (C.A.T.) (author's transl)]

The authors appraise the value of CAT in the study of epilepsy from their personal experience and from the few published works that are available. The CAT confirms and supports a large number of already acquired facts:--the almost complete absence of cerebral lesions in "functional" epilepsies (primary generalized epilepsies and benign childhood epilepsy with rolandic paroxysms);--the large number of abnormalities in the secondary generalized epilepsies (West syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome) where the majority of patients present a bilateral fronto-temporal atrophy;--the high percentage of cerebral lesions in partial epilepsies. In this case, the CAT is especially notable in revealing etiologies in 63 p. 100 of cases. They include: tumors, abcesses, empyemas, angiomas, cerebral infarctions, cerebral atrophies, post-traumatic lesions, etc... From this study, it can be concluded that positive diagnosis of epilepsy is still made on the basis of clinical and electroencephalographic data, with the CAT used to facilitate the etiological diagnosis.