Glutamate imaging may be capable of identifying the focus of epileptic seizures in patients who appear to have nonlesional epilepsy on standard imaging techniques, researchers report in Science Translational Medicine.
The findings are based on just four patients, but the team chose to publish the results to speed wider validation of the technique, saying that it could lead to substantial improvements in the treatment of patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.
“Because it is… well established that patients with lesional epilepsy have better surgical outcomes than those with nonlesional epilepsy, new neuroimaging techniques capable of detecting subtle lesions could potentially improve patient care and increase the chance of seizure freedom after surgery”, say Kathryn Davis (Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA) and co-researchers.
