Developing an effective program to complete ictal SPECT in the epilepsy monitoring unit

With the availability of more stable radiopharmaceuticals, the ictal single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) perfusion study has emerged as a useful noninvasive functional neuroimaging tool in the presurgical evaluation of patients with medically intractable partial epilepsy. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the development of a program using trained electroencephalography (EEG) technologists to perform ictal injections in the epilepsy monitoring unit enabled a more efficient delivery of radiopharmaceuticals and therefore a higher specificity and sensitivity of outcome. All patients admitted to the epilepsy monitoring unit for prolonged video/EEG monitoring as part of the presurgical evaluation were eligible for completion of an ictal SPECT study using a three-way needle-free apparatus. Over a 19-month period, 85 (77%) of 110 eligible patients were successfully injected during typical partial seizures. Various factors were analyzed including latency of ictal injection (27.3±20.8 [S.D.] s), radiopharmaceutical wastage (40% dose utilization), radiation safety parameters (1.6% contamination rate), and preliminary data of localizing value. Our results show that ictal SPECT can be a safe, noninvasive procedure completed on a routine basis in the epilepsy monitoring unit when appropriately trained support staff are utilized as part of a structured multidisciplinary program.