Recent advances of PET in temporal lobe epilepsy

Recent advancement of PET studies in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy was reviewed. Changes of receptor plasticity are also examined in the experimental model of temporal lobe epilepsy in rats with unilateral injection of Kainic acid into the basolateral portion of the amygdala. The characteristic changes of receptor function in the specific topographical areas in both hippocampi with and without any morphological changes in these rats were observed. We plan to investigate these changes of receptor plasticity by PET with 11C-labeled ligands in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy in the near future to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms of temporal lobe epilepsy.