Multimodal evaluation of grey and white matter in patients with generalized epilepsy according to seizure control

• Grant number: 15/10228-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2015
• End date: April 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Clarissa Lin Yasuda
• Grantee: Marina Sconzo Polydoro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (FCM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07559-3 - BRAINN - The Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, AP.CEPID

Abstract

Epilepsy is a neurological condition that affects approximately 50 million people. This condition can be classified according to the type of seizure into focal epilepsy, which is derived from cortical dysfunction in a specific area, and generalized epilepsy, that results in a seizure involving the whole cerebral cortex. Generalized epilepsy is subdivided into secondary generalized epilepsy, which results from a focal seizure, and idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), in this case, it is not possible to find an epileptic focus in the EEG. Usually, the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in IGE patients is normal. However, several studies found subtle abnormalities in brain structures and cortex function of these patients after MRI quantitative and functional evaluations. Nevertheless, these studies also identified conflicting results, especially regarding the thalamic volume. The majority of them do not emphasize the relation between seizure control by medication and the MRI results. The purpose of this project is to clinically characterize and evaluate the white and gray matter abnormalities in IGE patients according to their treatment response. The clinical evaluation will be conducted through the patients medical records analysis, the white and gray matter changes will be assessed by 3T MRI and post-processing with VBM/Dartel, diffusion tensor image analysis and FreeSurfer analysis.