Cognitive Deficits during Status Epilepticus and Time Course of Recovery: A Case Report

Abstract

We describe a young woman with progressive cognitive and neurological deficits during a parietal lobe status epilepticus (SE). Ictal FDG-PET showed left parietal lobe hypermetabolism and frontal lobe hypometabolism with concomitant EEG slowing. Cognitive and neurological deficits fully reversed more than 1 year after seizure remission, and were associated with normalization of FDG-PET and EEG. Our findings suggest that ictal hypometabolism and EEG delta activity at a distance from the epileptic focus were seizure-related phenomena, possibly representing inhibition in seizure propagation pathways, which could be responsible for the epileptic encephalopathy.