Positron Emission Tomography in Epilepsy: Correlative Study

Abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) was performed with the ¹⁸F-fluoro-deoxy-glucose method on 29 patients with epilepsy (generalized epilepsy, 4; partial epilepsy, 24; undetermined type, 1). The subjects were restricted to patients with epilepsy without focal abnormality on X-CT. All the patients with generalized epilepsy showed a normal pattern on PET. Fourteen out of the 24 patients with partial epilepsy and the 1 with epilepsy of undetermined type showed focal hypometabolism on PET. The hypomeiabolic zone was localized in areas including the temporal cortex in 11 patients, frontal in 2 and thalamus in 1. The location of hypometabolic zone and that of interictal paroxysmal activity on EEG were well correlated in most patients. The patients with poorly controlled seizure showed a higher incidence of PET abnormality (12 out of 13) than those with well-controlled seizures (2 out of 11). The incidence of abnormality on PET and MRI and the location of both abnormalities were not necessarily coincident. These results indicated that the PET examination in epilepsy provides valuable information about the location of epileptic focus, and that the findings on PET in patients with partial epilepsy may be one of the good indicators about the intractability of partial epilepsy, and that PET and MRI provide complementary information in the diagnosis of epilepsy.