Brain : a journal of neurology
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Comparative Study
An analysis of clinical seizure patterns and their localizing value in frontal and temporal lobe epilepsies.
The differentiation of frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) and temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a clinical problem of major theoretical and practical importance. Current electroclinical classification is based on retrospective studies of highly selected patients. When applied to the presurgical evaluation of patients, it has poor specificity. ⋯ Only one combination of different seizure types in the same patient occurred with statistical significance: absence and generalized motor seizures and pseudo generalized epilepsy. The results of this study suggest that relatively few seizures can be localized reliably on clinical grounds and that even in those seizure types where there is a statistically significant association with specific cortical areas, an important minority do not share the same associations. Analysis of the seizure evolution as well as initial symptoms may be of value in localizing some cases, but even here wide variation occurs...