Secondary Corpus Callosum Abnormalities Associated with Antiepileptic Drugs in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study

• Published in: The neuroradiology journal 2011-04, Vol.24 (2), p.316-323
• Main Authors: Günbey, H.P., Ercan, K., FindikoğLu, A.S., Bilir, E., Karaoglanoglu, M., Komurcu, F., Alhan, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1971-4009; 2385-1996
• DOI: 10.1177/197140091102400223

Epilepsy is more than a grey-matter disorder affecting large white matter connections of the brain with seizure generation and propagation. The mechanism for such changes remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the microstructural changes in the corpus callosum in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients and whether these abnormalities are related to antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy. Ten TLE patients receiving AED therapy, ten TLE patients with no therapy and ten controls were included in the study. The regions of interest in the corpus callosum were outlined to each Witelson region (WR). Fractional anisotrophy (FA), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), three main diffusivity values (λ1, λ2, λ3) and tractography were acquired from each WR. DTI indices of these tracts and each WR were compared between the three subject groups and correlates examined with clinical variables that included duration of epilepsy, gender, AED type and AED therapy exposure. In TLE subjects with receiving AED therapy significantly (p