Premium
Presurgical lateralization of seizure focus and language dominant hemisphere with O‐15 water PET imaging
Author(s) -
Tatlidil R.,
Xiong J.,
Luther S.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0404.2000.102002073.x
Subject(s) - lateralization of brain function , wada test , laterality , psychology , epilepsy , audiology , temporal lobe , medicine , complex partial seizures , positron emission tomography , nuclear medicine , radiology , neuroscience
Objectives – The purpose of this study was to assess the value of same day blood flow PET in both the identification of the language dominant hemisphere and in the lateralization of the epileptic focus in patients who were preoperatively evaluated for complex partial seizures. Methods – The charts of 24 patients who had temporal lobectomies for seizures were retrospectively reviewed. All PET scans were acquired by using O‐15 water tracer (H 2 15 O) in both resting and language activation conditions. PET language laterality results were compared to Intracarotid amytal procedure (IAP) results. For epileptic focus lateralizations, regions of interest (ROI) analysis of temporal lobes was performed on resting scans. Results – IAP testing was discordant with PET language mapping in 1 out of 24 cases. This patient had a decline in cognitive abilities as measured by postoperative neuropsychologic testing. For epileptic focus lateralization, the PET was highly sensitive (87%) and specific (100%). Lateralizations with the PET were in agreement with surgical sites in all cases. Eighteen patients (75%) were seizure free and 4 patients (17%) were significantly improved after surgery. Conclusion – The results suggest that O‐15 water PET is sensitive and specific in both the lateralization of epileptic focus and the language dominant hemisphere and can be a cost‐effective and noninvasive method in presurgical evaluation of patients with complex partial seizures.