Magnetic resonance imaging findings in newly diagnosed epileptic children

Objectives: Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurologic disorders in childhood and it affects 0.5-1% of children. The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence and types of structural abnormalities in the epileptic children.

Methods: The study was performed in Near East University and Dr. Suat Gunsel University in North Cyprus. It was conducted at pediatric neurology outpatient clinic of the hospital. The records of 1 to 18 years old epileptic children in whom Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) performed within 6 months after diagnosis were enrolled to the study between the dates of October 2011 and June 2017.

Results: Among 220 children; 131 (59.55%) had no abnormality and 89 (45.45%) had at least one abnormality in the MRI. Most commonly documented lesions were generally encephalomalacia, hydrocephaly and brain atrophy with a percent of 5.90 (13 cases), 5.45 (12 cases) and 4.55 (10 cases) respectively. Sixty nine (31.06%) of the patients had one abnormality whereas 20 (9.09%) had two or more lesion.

Conclusion: Abnormality in MRI examination in newly diagnosed epileptic children was high. These high rates may be due to enrollment of children with new emerging epilepsy on a chronical neurologic disorder. Additionally 20 (9.09%) of patients had a concomitant lesion. Secondary lesions were detected in cases with corpus callosum abnormality, atrophy, encephalomalacia and hydrocephaly. Primarily formed lesions are unknown; further studies are needed to confirm these findings.