Although a number of studies have addressed epilepsy from a va- riety of
qualitative and quantitative factors, relatively little systematic or
multidisciplinary work has been reported to date. The general purpose of
the present study was to analyze specific kinds of data from a large
series of epileptic patients to focus the significance of the findings,
particularly in relation to previously published results. Correlations
among the following parameters are presented: age, sex, age at onset of
seizure, type of seizure, paroxysmal electroencephalogram (EEG)
abnormalities, basic EEG rhythm, family predisposition to epilepsy, and
the presence of exogenous factors. The basic material of the present
study consists of records of approximately 7400 patients treated at the
outpatient clinic of the Department of Neurology, University of
Heidelberg, in whom the clinical diagnosis suggested some type of
epilepsy. Initially, the first consecutive 500 patients in an
alphabetically arranged file were chosen for inclusion within the study
if their clinical diagnosis was supplemented by at least one EEG
examination. The final study group consisted of 466 patients, since 34
patients had to be excluded because of the lack of sufficient clinical
information concerning them.