ABSTRACT
The impact of modern neuroimaging in the investigation and diagnosis of patients with neurologic diseases has been enormous. The impact in the management of patients with seizures and epilepsy can not be overemphasized, considering the high sensitivity and exquisite degree of anatomical resolution and metabolic information now available with different imaging techniques.1-5 The most compelling example of this impact has been in the diagnosis of mesial temporal sclerosis. This entity was exclusively a pathologic diagnosis until a decade ago. Now, with MRI, this entity can be demonstrated in vivo.6 The impact of this and other techniques extends beyond the simple detection of epileptic lesions by contributing to the proper classification of epileptic disorders and by delineating the genetics underlying some epileptic conditions. Lastly, modern neuroimaging techniques have directly and indirectly advanced our understanding of the basic pathophysiologic processes associated with the epilepsies.
