RESUMO
This is a comparative analysis of clinico-electrophysiological correlations in epileptic patients with different degrees of severity of the disease, and their close relatives. A total of 44 families of epileptic patients were investigated as were 84 of their relatives. Most benign course of the disease was noted in the patients whose relatives had epilepsy-related changes. In these cases the EEG patterns were to a several extent similar in probands and their relatives. On the contrary, in patients with severe disease which had relatives without epileptic disorders, the EEG pictures showed no similarities. In these patients the cortical rhythm changes were supposedly due to the shifts in relationships of the brain pathological and compensatory processes. EEG changes reflected the preponderance of pathology.