Imaging the Patient with Seizures

Abstract

Seizures occur as a result of excessive, prolonged and synchronous electrical discharges of neurons within the brain parenchyma that alter neurologic function. Seizures may be acute or provoked such as in the case of a patient with a recent closed head injury, acute intracranial inflammatory process, or an acute cerebral infarct. The term “epilepsy” is applied to chronic, recurrent seizures. These seizures may be partial or focal in onset from a certain region of the brain such as the parenchyma adjacent to a neoplasm. Alternatively, the seizures may be generalized with simultaneous onset of the abnormal electrical activity from both cerebral hemispheres. If the data are insufficient to make these distinctions, the seizures are listed as unclassified. There is a higher incidence of partial seizures among all patients with epilepsy, but this varies with age. Generalized seizures are more common in early childhood while partial seizures increase in incidence with age such that partial seizures account for 75% of seizures in the elderly [1].