Metabolic Studies of Generalized Epilepsy

Positron emission tomography (PET) with [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has been used to study local cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (LCMRGlc) associated with a variety of epileptic conditions. Most published reports are concerned primarily with partial epilepsies (Abou-Khalil et al., 1987; Engel et al., 1982a-d, 1983; Franck et al., 1986; Theodore et al., 1984; Yamamoto et al., 1983), particularly the recognized value of FDG-PET in the selection of patients with medically intractable partial seizures for resective surgical treatment (Engel, 1987). Centers with PET scan facilities have paid less attention to the generalized epilepsies. However, sufficient data are available to allow speculation concerning the potential role for functional imaging in clinical diagnosis of generalized epileptic disorders, as well as for understanding the basic mechanisms of generalized epileptic seizures.