[Cryptogenic cerebral atrophy in late-onset epilepsy]

174 subjects suffering from late onset epilepsy were examined. The incidence of cerebral atrophy, defined with objective criteria on CT scans by means of a comparative analysis with a matched for age control group was 37.9%. Head traumas, cerebrovascular disorders and alcoholism were the presumed etiological factors in most of the cases while in 25 subjects (20%) the etiology of cerebral atrophy remained unknown ("cryptogenous atrophy"). Clinical profil, psychometric performance and EEG characteristics of these subjects were investigated and compared with the remainder groups of late-onset epileptics. The results obtained show that the subjects with cryptogenous atrophy behave, as regard the features considered, as the late-onset epileptics with normal CT but present an higher familial prevalence for epilepsy. On the contrary they differs in various ways from late-onset epileptics with atrophy of known origin and from epileptics with focal lesions.