A systematic review of the literature on the effects of dexamethasone on the brain from in vivo human-based studies: implications for physiological brain imaging of patients with intracranial tumors.

Background: Among glucocorticoids, dexamethasone is most widely used for treatment of cerebral edema because of its long biological half-life and its low mineralocorticoid activity (sodium retaining).

Objective: A systematic review of the literature on the effects of dexamethasone on the brain from in vivo studies in humans.

Methods: A MEDLINE database search (via the PubMed interface) and an EMBASE database search (via the Dialog interface) of the past 35 years was performed.

Recent advances in imaging epilepsy.

Around 30 000 people are diagnosed with epilepsy every year in the UK. While many of these respond well to antiepileptic drugs, 20-30% have seizures that are resistant to best medical treatment. For these patients it is important to identify any structural abnormalities responsible for generating seizure activity that may be amenable to surgical resection.