Epilepsy and Cell Death

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders afflicting mankind. It is a syndrome of unpredictable spontaneous recurrence of seizures. Its prevalence ranges from 1.5 to 19.5 per 1000 depending on the geographical area and the ethnic group (1). Despite all the misconceptions and prejudicial history since the first description of this malady in Hippocrates' "On the Sacred Disease" 2500 yr ago, there have been dramatic improvements in diagnosis and treatment thanks to the modern brain imaging technology such as magnetic resonance image (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and single photon emission tomography (SPECT) as well as various surgical approaches to medically intractable epilepsies. Compared with these marked improvements in diagnostic and treatment modalities, the understanding of the basic patho-physiologic mechanisms of epilepsy remains rather elusive