A comparative study between magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) and CT was carried out in 16 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. The MRT studies were performed on a 0.35 T Magnetom with T.1 modes in a coronal plane. MRT proved to the superior to CT. CT demonstrated a discreet temporal lobe lesion in three patients and MRT in four patients. In addition, unilateral atrophy of the temporal lobe was demonstrated by MRT in six cases; these could not be diagnosed by CT. The lack of artifacts near the skull base, the possibility of producing coronal sections and the excellent tissue differential of MRT provide the basis for improved diagnosis of lesions in the temporal lobes.