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Meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies of gray matter abnormalities in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and unilateral hippocampal sclerosis

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Abstract

We aimed to perform a meta-analysis to systematically determine the most consistent regions of gray matter volume (GMV) abnormality in patients of unilateral mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS), and to reveal the difference of GMV abnormality between the patients with left-sided and right-sided MTLE-HS. A comprehensive and systematic search was performed in PubMed for voxel-based morphometry (VBM) studies of MTLE-HS. A total of 12 MTLE-HS studies, including 9 left-sided MTLE-HS (LMTLE-HS) and 8 right-sided MTLE-HS (RMTLE-HS) studies were included. The activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method was applied in our meta-analysis. Compared to the healthy controls, MTLE-HS patients showed significant GMV decrease in the parahippocampal gyrus, left pulvinar and right pyramis. For LMTLE-HS, the most consistent GMV decrease was detected in the left parahippocampal gyrus. For RMTLE-HS, the most consistent GMV decrease was found in the right parahippocampal gyrus. No shared regions of significant GMV reduction were found between LMTLE-HS and RMTLE-HS either. This meta-analysis revealed that MTLE-HS patients had significant GMV reduction even beyond the hippocampus, and the subtypes showed distinct reduction patterns. Our findings, if were further verified with larger samples, would have implications for the clinical diagnosis of MTLE-HS.

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Funding

This work was supported by The Seed Funding from Scientific and Technical Innovation Council of Shenzhen Government (No. 000048), Special Funding Scheme for Supporting the Innovation and Research of Shenzhen High-caliber Overseas Intelligent (No. KQCX20140519103243534), and Shenzhen Municipal Scheme for Basic Research (No. JCYJ20170303160116960).

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Author notes

  1. Liyun Zheng and Guo Bin: equal contribution, co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National-Regional Key Technology Engineering Laboratory for Medical Ultrasound, Guangdong Key Laboratory for Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Liyun Zheng, Guo Bin & Bingsheng Huang

  2. Department of Radiology, Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Hongwu Zeng

  3. Department of Neurology, Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Dongfang Zou

  4. Centre of Buddhists Studies, Art Faculty, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    Junling Gao

  5. School of Medicine, Health Science Centre, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Zhang

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  1. Liyun Zheng
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  2. Guo Bin
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  3. Hongwu Zeng
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  4. Dongfang Zou
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Correspondence to Jian Zhang or Bingsheng Huang.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Zheng, L., Bin, G., Zeng, H. et al. Meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies of gray matter abnormalities in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and unilateral hippocampal sclerosis. Brain Imaging and Behavior 12, 1497–1503 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-017-9797-5

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