Development of methods for evaluating cortical dysplasia in patients with refractory epilepsy by analyzing magnetic resonance images

• Grant number: 13/15445-8
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): January 01, 2014
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering - Medical Engineering
• Principal researcher: Luiz Otavio Murta Junior
• Grantee: Luiz Otavio Murta Junior
• Host: Ron Kikinis
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Harvard University, Boston, United States

Abstract

Cortical dysplasia (CD) is the most frequent cause for refractory epilepsy. Different findings are used to characterize and localize the epileptogenic focus, but no method is self-sufficient in order to verify the presence and location of the original crisis. Although there are reports in literature indicating changes in the distribution pattern of grays and voxels morphology resulting from CD, no systematic study has been carried out by proposing an effective methodology for subtle types of CD. In this sense, this proposal will investigate the presence and location of the epileptogenic focus through analysis: cortical thickness, texture patterns, and voxels wavelet morphology in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) after segmentation using registration, anisotropic diffusion filters anomalous and geodesic active contour. This method will be validated using a retrospective multicenter image database of surgical evaluation, which extracted epileptogenic tissue was evaluated containing documented histopathologic findings. This work will investigate the effectiveness of DC detection on different conditions: for different classes of dysplasia; different scales of observation of regions of interest; the gain in efficiency for scanners 3 T in relation to 1.5 T. It is expected to finish the project, validate the proposed method repondendo different questions regarding detection of CD, and get a functional tool for clinical research and surgery support ready to be extended to other methods of support for epilepsy surgery and research about CD. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SILVA, L. E. V.; SENRA FILHO, A. C. S.; FAZAN, V. P. S.; FELIPE, J. C.; MURTA JUNIOR, L. O. Two-dimensional sample entropy: assessing image texture through irregularity. BIOMEDICAL PHYSICS & ENGINEERING EXPRESS, v. 2, n. 4 AUG 2016. Web of Science Citations: 8.