Abstract
AIM: To determine acute computed tomography perfusion (CTP) changes in seizure patients presenting with stroke-like symptoms and to correlate those changes with clinical presentation and electroencephalography (EEG).
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records of all patients who presented to the emergency department with acute stroke-like symptoms and underwent CTP (n = 1085) over a 5.5-year period were reviewed. Patients were included who had primary seizure as the final diagnosis, and underwent CTP within 3 hours of symptom onset. A subset of patients had a follow-up EEG within 7 days. The perfusion changes and EEG findings were compared between different clinical presentations.
RESULTS: Eighteen of 1085 patients (1.7%) who underwent CTP following an acute stroke-like presentation were included. The abnormality on CTP was usually focal, unilateral hyper-perfusion - increased relative cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and volume (rCBV) (n = 14/18), which most often affected the temporal lobe. Those patients who presented with a motor or speech deficit (n = 12) had a higher temporal lobe rCBV, and rCBF, and lower relative mean transit time (rMTT) compared to those with non-focal neurological deficit at presentation. Early EEG was available in 13 patients; a sharp-spike epileptiform EEG discharge pattern (n = 5) was associated with higher temporal lobe ipsilateral rCBF and rCBV, and lower rMTT on admission CTP examination.
CONCLUSION: Seizure patients who present with a unilateral motor or speech deficit most commonly have contralateral hyperperfusion in the corresponding eloquent brain regions on the acute-stage CTP examination. In such patients, epileptiform discharges on the early followup EEG are associated with ipsilateral hyperperfusion on the admission CTP. (C) 2015 The Royal College of Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
