School of Medicine Publications and Presentations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2024
Abstract
Objective
Tissue abnormalities in focal epilepsy may extend beyond the presumed focus. The underlying pathophysiology of these broader changes is unclear, and it is not known whether they result from ongoing disease processes, treatment-related side-effects, or whether they emerge earlier. Few studies have focused on the period of onset for most focal epilepsies, childhood. Fewer still have utilised quantitative MRI, which may provide a more sensitive and interpretable measure of tissue microstructural change. Here, we aimed to determine common spatial modes of changes in cortical architecture in children with heterogeneous drug-resistant focal epilepsy and, secondarily, whether changes were related to disease severity.
Methods
To assess cortical microstructure, quantitative T1 and T2 relaxometry (qT1 and qT2) was measured in 43 children with drug-resistant focal epilepsy [age-range=4-18 years] and 46 typically-developing children [age-range=2-18 years]. We assessed depth-dependent qT1 and qT2 values across the neocortex, as well as their gradient of change across cortical depths. We also determined whether global changes seen in group analyses were driven by focal pathologies in individual patients. Finally, as a proof-of-concept, we trained a classifier using qT1 and qT2 gradient maps from patients with radiologically-defined abnormalities (MRI-positive) and healthy controls, and tested if this could classify patients without reported radiological abnormalities (MRI-negative).
Results
We uncovered depth-dependent qT1 and qT2 increases in widespread cortical areas in patients, likely representing microstructural alterations in myelin or gliosis. Changes did not correlate with disease severity measures, suggesting they may represent antecedent neurobiological alterations. Using a classifier trained with MRI-positive patients and controls, sensitivity was 71.4% at 89.4% specificity on held-out MRI-negative patients.
Significance
These findings suggest the presence of a potential imaging endophenotype of focal epilepsy, detectable irrespective of radiologically identified abnormalities.
Recommended Citation
Casella, C., Vecchiato, K., Cromb, D., Guo, Y., Winkler, A. M., Hughes, E., ... & O'Muircheartaigh, J. (2024). Widespread, depth‐dependent cortical microstructure alterations in pediatric focal epilepsy. Epilepsia, 65(3), 739-752. https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.17861 https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.17861
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Publication Title
Epilepsia
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/epi.17861
Academic Level
faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Office of Human Genetics
Comments
© 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited