Abstract.
The aim of this study was the assessment of detection rate on MRI and description of MRI findings in patients with medically intractable epilepsy. Seventy-three patients with medically intractable epilepsy between the ages of 0 and 68 years old were evaluated by MRI, on three planes with spin-echo T1, fast spin-echo T2, and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences, and, if necessary, with contrast-enhanced SE T1 sequences. Cerebral infarct regions with atrophy and gliosis in 8 patients, cerebral tumors in 5 patients, hippocampal sclerosis in 16 patients, radial microbrain in 1 patient, cortical dysplasia in 3 patients, pachygyria in 2 patients, subcortical heterotopia in 2 patients, schizencephaly in 3 patients, cerebral hemiatrophy in 2 patients, tuberous sclerosis in 1 patient, herpes encephalitis in 2 patients, Rasmussen's encephalitis in 1 patient, vascular malformations in 5 patients, and no abnormality in 22 patients were detected. Magnetic resonance imaging has a high success rate in detecting structural brain abnormalities, of both temporal and extratemporal locations, associated with medically intractable epilepsy syndromes. So MRI plays a primary role in planning of the treatment, primarily surgical therapy, by detecting structural epileptogenic lesions.
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Çakırer, S., Başak, M., Mutlu, A. et al. MR imaging in epilepsy that is refractory to medical therapy. Eur Radiol 12, 549–558 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003300101036
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003300101036