Seizure related elevations of extracellular amino acids in human focal epilepsy.

Intracerebral microdialysis combined with electrocorticographic recordings was used in a patient subjected to epilepsy surgery. The patient developed a series of partial seizures during an 8 min period. Marked elevations of aspartate (79-fold), glycine (21-fold), glutamate (16-fold) and serine (8-fold) dialysate concentrations occurred in association with onset of the period with seizures. Recurrent seizures occurred, in spite of normalizing amino acid levels. Other amino acids analyzed (aspargine, threonine, arginine, alanine, taurine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, isoleucine and leucine) showed less pronounced changes (1-5 times the basal levels).