Magnetic Resonance Imaging findings in children with intractable epilepsy compared with children with medical responsive epilepsy

• Published in: Iranian journal of child neurology 2022-04, Vol.16 (2), p.53
• Main Authors: Khosronejad, Azime, Rahimian, Elham, Raiszadeh, Mohammad, Najafizadeh-Sari, Shahriar, Kenarsari, Alireza Ranaie, Amirsalari, Susan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atrophy; Cell migration; Children; Cognitive ability; Corpus callosum; Cysts; Dysplasia; Epilepsy; Gliosis; Hippocampus; Hydrocephalus; Lesions; Magnetic resonance imaging; Nervous system; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Neuroimaging; Patients; Pediatrics; Seizures
• ISSN: 1735-4668; 2008-0700
• DOI: 10.22037/ijcn.v16i2.27107

Objective: Epilepsy is a common brain disorder that characterizes by the persistent tendency to develop seizures in the neurological cognitive and psychological contents. MRI imaging is a neuroimaging study that helps finding structural epileptogenic lesions. The goal of this study is comparing the MRI findings between patients with intractable and drug-responsive epilepsy. Material and methods: This case-control study was performed from 2007 to 2019. We consecutively enrolled all 1 to 16-year-old patients with intractable epilepsy who referred to shafa neuroscience center (72 patients) as case group and drug responsive patients who referred to pediatric neurology clinic of Baqiyatallah hospital as control group. Results: 72 (23.5%) patients included in intractable epilepsy group and 200 (76.5%) patients in the drug-responsive group. The average age of total patients were 6.70± 4.13 years and gender distribution of the cases were 126 males and 106 females. Normal brain MRI was seen in 21(29.16%) patients case group and 184 (92.46%) in control group. Neuronal migration disorder (NMD) was seen in 7 (9.72%) patients in case group and zero patient in control group. Also, the hippocampal abnormality and focal lesions (mass, dysplasia, etc) MRI findings were seen in 10 (13.88%) patients in case group and only 1 (0.05%) case was in the control group. The corpus callosum agenesis, hydrocephalus, brain malacia, and developmental cyst were seen non-significantly more in the case group. Conclusion: MRI findings such as hippocampal abnormalities, focal lesions (mass, dysplasia, etc), NMD, porencephalic cysts, gliosis, and atrophy are seen significantly more in intractable epilepsy patients.