Strategies for diagnosis and treatment of childhood epilepsy.

Abstract

Recent developments in neuroimaging have advanced our capability to diagnose and perform presurgical evaluations in a large proportion of children without recourse to invasive monitoring techniques. Functional imaging is also providing us with novel insights into the mechanism of certain childhood epileptic syndromes. The role of anatomic (computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging) and functional (single photon emission computed tomography, positron emission tomography) imaging modalities in the diagnosis and therapeutic decision making in major epileptic syndromes of childhood is reviewed.