Background and purpose

The aims of this study were (i) to determine the correlation between seizure activity and the metabolic rate of the tumour measured by 11Cmethionine PET (MET PET) in patients with grade 2 gliomas, and (ii) to assess the prognostic impact of early seizure manifestations on patient survival.

Methods

In this retrospective review, early seizure manifestations were studied in 101 patients with supratentorial grade 2 gliomas subjected to MET PET as part of the pretreatment tumour investigation. Seizure manifestations as a variable was then used in multivariate survival analyses, together with established prognostic factors for this patient group.

Results

Of all 101 cases, 88 patients had seizures at tumour presentation. Fortyseven were seizure free at the early stage of the disease, whereas 54 had recurrent seizures. Patients with seizures at tumour presentation had a more favourable outcome before and after (P = 0.006) adjustment for conventional prognostic factors. However, for those who continued to have seizures early in the disease, the outcome was worse (P = 0.003). We found no significant correlation between MET PET and the seizure manifestations of the patients.

Conclusion

The presence and termination of early seizure manifestations may be favourable prognostic factors in patients with low-grade gliomas.

PURPOSE: Activation of the neurokinin-1 (NK1) receptor by neuropeptide substance P (SP) induces and maintains epileptic activity in various experimental models of epilepsy. The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether neurobiological changes linked to NK1-SP receptor system are associated with hyperexcitability in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). A secondary objective was to investigate the relationship between seizure frequency and NK1 receptor availability.

METHODS: A positron emission tomography study was conducted with the selective NK1 receptor antagonist [(11)C]GR205171 in nine patients with TLE and 18 healthy control participants. Parametric PET images were generated using the Patlak graphical method, with cerebellum as reference region. Data analyses including group comparisons were performed using statistical parametric mapping.

RESULTS: Patients with TLE showed increased NK1 receptor availability in both hemispheres with the most pronounced increase in anterior cingulate gyrus ipsilateral to seizure onset. A positive correlation between NK1 receptor availability and seizure frequency was observed in the medial temporal lobe and in the lentiform nucleus ipsilateral to the seizure onset.

CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that there is an intrinsic network using the NK1-SP receptor system for synaptic transmission and epileptiform activity in TLE.