Abstract: To study the lateral location diagnosis value of PET in temporal lobe epilepsy before operation, 20 patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy were investigated by EEG, MRI and PET. Nineteen of 20 patients had epileptiform discharges in EEG scalp recordings, but only one patient had normal EEG. EEG recordings showed unilateral EEG abnormal focus in 10 patients and bilateral abnormal focus in nine patients. MRI demonstrated 12 normal, five unilateral hippocampal atrophy, one left parietal occipital softening and one left frontal heterotopic gray matter and one rignt frontoparietal cyst accompanied with pituitary adenoma. PET revealed focal hypometabolism in all 20 patients, of whom 16 had unilateral abnormalities and 4 bilateral abnormalities. All patients were treated by operation, 16 patients underwent anterior temporal resection and hippocampectomy, 4 patients selective hippocampectomy. The pathologic examination showed gliosis and neuron death in resected samples. These results indicates that PET is superior to MRI in localizing diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy, more sensitive and reliable.

Key words: PET|temporal lobe epilepsy|operative treatment