Neuroimaging of status epilepticus

In the past 2 decades we have observed an extensive use of different neuroimaging techniques to evaluate patients with status epilepticus. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in particular may show a broad spectrum of abnormalities that are either the causes or the consequences of sustained epileptic activity. Neuroimaging techniques can offer a contribution both in the clinical management of individual patients, identifying hemodynamic patterns that support the diagnosis, and also in the recognition of periictal reversible or irreversible alterations. For the future it is necessary to develop larger and prospective studies in which imaging techniques and electroencephalography (EEG) recordings are acquired closely to understand which EEG patterns are related to imaging biomarkers of neuronal damage.