Single photon emission computed tomography with99mTc HM-PAO in the study of focal epilepsy

We used99mTc HM-PAO SPECT to study 50 patients with partial epilepsy: 47 interically and 3 during a seizure. All 3 patients studied during a seizure presented an area of increased tracer uptake. Of those in whom recordings were taken during seizure-free intervals 35 (74%) showed perfusion asymmetries: 27 (57%) with decreased and 8 (17%) with increased uptake. We discuss the findings and compare them with those of similar studies using SPECT and positron emission tomography.