Neuroimaging Findings in Patients with Status Epilepticus: The Role of Diffusion and Perfusion Imaging

Abstract

Status epilepticus may have long-term consequences, including neuronal injury. Some patients with status epilepticus have neuroimaging findings, including cytotoxic and vasogenic edema, abnormal signal intensity on T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and the T2 fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images, and perfusion abnormalities. The prognosis of these findings is unclear; they might be associated with de novo epilepsy and poor prognosis. In this report, we describe the clinical, elect roenc ephal ograp hic and the magnetic resonance, and the computerized tomographic perfusion findings in 4 patients with status epilepticus and emphasize the variable characteristic of the imaging findings, the correlation of the clinical and elect roenc ephal ograp hy findings with magnetic resonance image lesions, and the key features to differentiate these lesions from vascular lesions.

Keywords

• status epilepticus
• magnetic resonance imaging
• diffusion-weighted imaging
• perfusion imaging