Testing and Diagnosis

Testing and Diagnosis

The Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Epilepsy Center team offers expertise in the diagnosis of epilepsy and non-epileptic seizure disorders, using advanced diagnostic tools.

Proper diagnosis of the type of epilepsy syndrome will help your physician determine what form of medication or type of treatment would be most beneficial for you.

Typical testing for epilepsy and other seizure disorders consists of:

• Outpatient EEG studies (routine EEG or ambulatory EEG)
• Advanced neuroimaging (epilepsy MRI, functional MRI, PET, SPECT, MEG, Wada)
• Neuropsychological evaluation
• Inpatient Seizure Monitoring and Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU)
• Genetic testing

A detailed history, blood work and EEG are important to identify the cause of seizures in patients who have metabolic, genetic, infectious or autoimmune epilepsy.

In patients with suspected focal onset seizures, a high resolution MRI scan is crucial to understand if the patient has a structural cause for their seizures, such as a scar, brain tumor, vascular abnormality or malformed brain.