Ictal PET Findings of Complex Partial Status Epilepticus

ABSTRACT

We performed an 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) position emission tomography (PET) in two patients with complex partial status epilepticus (CPSE). Ictal FDG studies usually occur by chance, because of the unpredictable nature of seizures and the short half-life of flourine-18. In addition to that, ictal PET studies are often contaminated by postictal hypometabolism due to the relatively long FDG uptake period. We experienced two patients with prolonged states of mental confusion. During the confused state, eletrophysiologic and neuroimaging studies were done to confirm the diag-nosis of CPSE. Ictal PET studies showed hypermetabolism during status epilepticus compared with interictal PET. There has been no case report about ictal PET in Korea. We present two cases of ictal PET with a review of the literature