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Epilepsy

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Diagnostics


Seizures may take many forms and depend on the part of the brain affected. Inpatient epilepsy monitoring is a specialized test in which people with known or possible epilepsy spend one or more days in a special part of the hospital designed to record seizures. The test has two major purposes:

  • To determine if someone’s symptoms are due to epilepsy or another condition.
  • To identify the precise brain region causing seizures in people who may benefit from surgical treatment for epilepsy.

To help evaluate, diagnose and treat seizures in patients of all ages, the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) at Albany Med was specifically designed. The EMU is equipped with EEG, video and voice recording equipment, so that specially trained medical professionals can continuously monitor the patient. The information obtained from this monitoring allows the epilepsy team of specialists to recommend the best therapy to treat a particular patient’s seizure disorder.

Other diagnostic testing and services include:

  • Routine scalp EEG
  • Outpatient multiple-day ambulatory EEG
  • Inpatient video EEG evaluation for seizure characterization and localization
  • Advanced neuropsychological/psychometric assessments
  • Anatomic and functional imaging including MRI, SPECT, MRSPECT, PET
  • Intracarotid amytal assessments of language and memory function
  • Implantation of subdural grid and strip electrode arrays for invasive recording and mapping
  • State-of-the-art functional brain mapping techniques including standard electrical interference mapping as well as ECoG mapping.