Seminars in nuclear medicine
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Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder that is controlled with medication in approximately 70% of cases. When partial seizures are recurrent despite the use of antiepileptic drugs, resection of the epileptogenic cortex may be considered. Nuclear medicine plays an important role in the presurgical assessment of patients with refractory epilepsy. ⋯ Because these tracers are not widely available and the superiority of studying these receptor systems over glucose metabolism in the presurgical evaluation of patients with refractory epilepsy remains to be proven, their use in clinical practice is limited at the moment. Finally, advances in small animal PET scanning allow the in vivo study of the process of epileptogenesis, starting from an initial brain insult to the development of seizures, in animal models of epilepsy. Potential new therapeutic targets may be discovered using this translational approach.