title: The I.L.A.E. classification of the epilepsies applied retrospectively to 1902 patients.
abstract: The I.L.A.E. classification of the epilepsies and epileptic syndromes was applied retrospectively to the epileptic seizure disorders of 1902 consecutive patients collected from a neurological consultant practice over a 30 year period. There were 265 patients with only a solitary seizure when they presented. These 265 included fewer instances of generalized epilepsies (14.0% versus 28.5%) and more instances of epilepsies of undetermined type (35.1% versus 20.4%) than the remaining 1637 patients. It was possible to categorize the epilepsy or epileptic syndrome present in 77.6% of all cases. The remainder could not be classified on the evidence available and thus fell into the I.L.A.E. classification's category of "epilepsies and syndromes undetermined whether focal or generalized'. The number of cases of such epilepsy of undetermined type decreased with increasing number of occasions on which patients were seen. Allowing for the effects of factors such as different age distributions in the various published series (in most series generalized epilepsies were more common in children), the distribution of epilepsies and epileptic syndromes diagnosed retrospectively in the present series was quite consonant with the data reported in the literature from contemporaneous series. In the various published series there were notable differences in the proportions of subjects allocated to the category of 'epilepsies and syndromes undetermined whether focal or generalized'. This raises the possibility that the categorizers' degrees of diagnostic confidence may have had appreciable effects on the reported distributions of epileptic syndromes in the different series. Some consensus regarding the degree of diagnostic probability acceptable for assigning a patient to a particular epileptic syndrome might yield more uniform outcomes from future epilepsy classificational attempts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Queensland, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston, Australia.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Eadie
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004828:Epilepsies, Partial / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis; D004829:Epilepsy, Generalized / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013577:Syndrome