Fahmida A. Chowdhury1, Ruth L. O'Gorman2, Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh1, Mark P. Richardson1, Gareth J. Barker3
1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, KCL, London, United Kingdom; 2Center for MR Research, University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland; 3Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, KCL, London, United Kingdom
Most previous spectroscopic studies have reported Glx levels, a combined measure of Glu (glutamate), the major excitatory neurotransmitter, and Gln (glutamine), the metabolic counterpart of glutamate. Increased Glx in frontal regions has been reported in patients with idiopathic generalised epilepsies (IGE). It has been suggested that glutamine is a useful surrogate marker for synaptically active glutamate. Recently MEGAPRESS acquisition has allowed detection of glutamine with greater sensitivity than that of the PRESS acquisition. Here we report increased frontal glutamine in a group of patients with IGE, which may represent a more sensitive measure for excitatory neurotransmission than Glx.