Computer tomography in children with electrophysiological abnormalities

Abstract

A computed tomography examination was carried out in a group of 43 children, of whom 15 had learning disabilities (LD). Children were selected with electrophysiological abnormalities in the routine EEG, in the quantitative EEG analysis and/or in the visual cortical and auditory brainstem evoked responses. Seven children, 1 control and 6 LD, had abnormalities in the computed tomography. The most frequent localization of the lesion was the left temporal lobe. This localization might explain the origin of the learning disorder, since the left temporal lobe is involved in reading and writing processes. There was a great concordance between the anatomical localization of the lesion by the computed tomography and the place of electrical abnormalities in the quantitative EEG and the visual evoked responses. These results strongly support the indication of a computed tomography examination in LD children.

Key Words:

• Computed tomography
• EEG
• learning disabilities
• visual evoked responses
• quantitative EEG analysis