The role of brain scanning in the differential diagnosis of seizures.

Of 200 patients with seizures who had brain scans, the studies were abnormal in 86% of patients with tumours and in 67% of those with strokes. The scan detected 84% of the 19 potentially curable lesions. There were no false positive studies. Seventy-nine per cent of patients with seizures of less than one year's duration had an abnormal scan; however, the scan was also abnormal in 22% of patients with non-focal seizures of less than one year's duration.