Abstract
Background
Frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) is the most common epilepsy syndrome in the pediatric population; however, brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the children with FLE is frequently normal. We use both cortical thickness and brain volume measurements to report on cortical changes in children with FLE. Our aim was to determine cortical thickness and brain volume changes on 3 Tesla MRI of children with FLE and normal brain magnetic resonance imaging.
Methods
Twenty-seven children with FLE and 27 healthy controls received brain magnetic resonance imaging. Cortical thickness and regional brain volumes were assessed using three-dimensional volumetric T1-weighted imaging and patients were compared with controls.
Results
In children with FLE, statistically significant (p < 0.05) cortical thinning were found in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, bilateral occipitotemporal and medial lingual gyrus, left subcallosal gyrus, left short insular gyrus, and right long insular gyrus. Statistically significant volume reductions in right and left hemisphere cortical white matter, total cortical white matter, bilateral thalamus, bilateral putamen, bilateral globus pallidus, right caudate nucleus, brain stem, and right cerebellar cortex were found.
Conclusion
Cortical thinning in frontal and extra-frontal lobes and volume loss in a variety of brain regions were found in children with FLE.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lawson JA, Cook MJ, Vogrin S, Litewka L, Strong D, Bleasel AF, Bye AM (2002) Clinical, EEG, and quantitative MRI differences in pediatric frontal and temporal lobe epilepsy. Neurology 58:723–729
Cascino GD, Jack CR Jr, Parisi JE, Marsh WR, Kelly PJ, Sharbrough FW, Hirschorn KA, Trenerry MR (1992) MRI in the presurgical evaluation of patients with frontal lobe epilepsy and children with temporal lobe epilepsy: pathologic correlation and prognostic importance. Epilepsy Res 11:51–59
Widjaja E, Mahmoodabadi SZ, Snead OC 3rd, Almehdar A, Smith ML (2011) Widespread cortical thinning in children with frontal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia 52:1685–1691
Widjaja E, Kis A, Go C, Snead OC 3rd, Smith ML (2014) Bilateral white matter abnormality in children with frontal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsy Res 108:289–294
Braakman HMH, Vaessen MJ, Jansen JFA, Debeij-van Hall MHJA, de Louw A, Hofman PAM, Les JSH, Aldenkamp AP, Backes WH (2014) Pediatric frontal lobe epilepsy: white matter abnormalities and cognitive impairment. Acta Neurol Scand 129:252–262
Saute R, Dabbs K, Jones JE, Jackson DC, Seidenberg M, Hermann BP (2014) Brain morphology in children with epilepsy and ADHD. PLoS One 9:e95269
Mutlu A (2018) Association between epilepsy and headache. Neurol Sci 39:2129–2134
Lorenzo NY, Parisi JE, Cascino GD, Jack CR Jr, Marsh WR, Hirschorn KA (1995) Intractable frontal lobe epilepsy: pathological and MRI features. Epilepsy Res 20:171–178
Jobst BC, Siegel AM, Thadani VM, Roberts DW, Rhodes HC, Williamson PD (2000) Intractable seizures of frontal lobe origin: clinical characteristics, localizing signs, and results of surgery. Epilepsia 41:1139–1152
Fischl B, Salat DH, van der Kouwe AJ, Makris N, Ségonne F, Quinn BT, Dale AM (2004) Sequence-independent segmentation of magnetic resonance images. Neuroimage 23:69–84
Fischl B, Sereno MI, Tootell RB, Dale AM (1999) High resolution intersubject averaging and a coordinate system for the cortical surface. Hum Brain Mapp 8:272–284
Fischl B, Serono MI, Dale AM (1999) Cortical surface-based analysis II: inflation, flattening, and a surface-based coordinate system. Neuroimage 9:195–207
Fischl B, Dale AM (2000) Measuring the thickness of the human cerebral cortex from magnetic resonance images. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 97:11050–11055
Dale AM, Fischl B, Sereno MI (1999) Cortical surface-based analysis. I. Segmentation and surface reconstruction. Neuroimage 9:179–194
Fischl B, van der Kouwe A, Destrieux C, Halgren E, Ségonne F, Salat DH, Busa E, Seidman LJ, Goldstein J, Kennedy D, Caviness V, Makris N, Rosen B, Dale AM (2004) Automatically parcellating the human cerebral cortex. Cereb Cortex 14:11–22
Desikan RS, Ségonne F, Fischl B, Quinn BT, Dickerson BC, Blacker D, Buckner RL, Dale AM, Maguire RP, Hyman BT, Albert MS, Killiany RJ (2006) An automated labeling system for subdividing the human cerebral cortex on MRI scans into gyral based regions of interest. Neuroimage 31:968–980
Widjaja E, Zarei Mahmoodabadi S, Go C, Raybaud C, Chuang S, Snead OC, Smith ML (2012) Reduced cortical thickness in children with new-onset seizures. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 33:673–677
Quesney LF, Constain M, Rasmussen T, Stefan H, Olivier A (1992) How large are frontal lobe epileptogenic zones? EEG, ECoG, and SEEG evidence. Adv Neurol 57:311–323
da Silva EA, Chugani DC, Muzik O, Chugani HT (1997) Identification of frontal lobe epileptic foci in children using positron emission tomography. Epilepsia 38:1198–1208
Mueller SG, Laxer KD, Barakos J, Cheong I, Garcia P, Weiner MW (2009) Widespread neocortical abnormalities in temporal lobe epilepsy with and without mesial sclerosis. Neuroimage 46:353–359
Vaessen MJ, Jansen JF, Braakman HM, Hofman PA, De Louw A, Aldenkamp AP, Backes WH (2014) Functional and structural network impairment in childhood frontal lobe epilepsy. PLoS One 9(3):e90068
Enteno M, Vollmar C, Stretton J, Symms MR, Thompson PJ, Richardson MP, O’Muircheartaigh J, Duncan JS, Koepp MJ (2014) Structural changes in the temporal lobe and piriform cortex in frontal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsy Res 108:978–981
Eriksson SH, Malmgren K, Nordborg C (2005) Microdysgenesis in epilepsy. Acta Neurol Scand 111:279–290
Tondelli M, Vaudano AE, Ruggieri A, Meletti S (2016) Cortical and subcortical brain alterations in juvenile absence epilepsy. Neuroimage Clin 12:306–311
Hermann BP, Dabbs K, Becker T, Jones JE, Myers Y, Gutierrez A, Wendt G, Koehn MA, Sheth R, Seidenberg M (2010) Brain development in children with new onset epilepsy: a prospective controlled cohort investigation. Epilepsia 51:2038–2046
Pulsipher DT, Dabbs K, Tuchsherer V, Sheth RD, Koehn MA, Hermann BP, Seidenberg M (2011) Thalamofrontal neurodevelopment in new-onset pediatric idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Neurology 76:28–33
Jones JE, Jackson DC, Chambers KL, Dabbs K, Hsu DA, Stafstrom CE, Seidenberg M, Hermann BP (2015) Children with epilepsy and anxiety: subcortical and cortical differences. Epilepsia 56:283–290
Lin JJ, Salamon N, Lee AD, Dutton RA, Geaga JA, Hayashi KM, Luders E, Toga AW, Engel J Jr, Thompson PM (2007) Reduced neocortical thickness and complexity mapped in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy with hippocampal sclerosis. Cereb Cortex 17:2007–2018
McDonald CR, Hagler DJ Jr, Ahmadi ME, Tecoma E, Iragui V, Gharapetian L, Dale AM, Halgren E (2008) Regional neocortical thinning in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia 49:794–803
Phal PM, Usmanov A, Nesbit GM, Anderson JC, Spencer D, Wang P, Helwig JA, Roberts C, Hamilton BE (2008) Qualitative comparison of 3-T and 1.5-T MRI in the evaluation of epilepsy. AJR Am J Roentgenol 191:890–895
Zijlmans M, de Kort GA, Witkamp TD, Huiskamp GM, Seppenwoolde JH, van Huffelen AC, Leijten FS (2009) 3T versus 1.5T phased-array MRI in the presurgical work-up of patients with partial epilepsy of uncertain focus. J Magn Reson Imaging 30:256–262
Abdel Razek AAK, Talaat M, El-Serougy L, Gaballa G, Abdelsalam M (2019) Clinical applications of arterial spin labeling in brain tumors. J Comput Assist Tomogr 43:525–532
Razek AAKA, El-Serougy L, Abdelsalam M, Gaballa G, Talaat M (2018) Differentiation of residual/recurrent gliomas from postradiation necrosis with arterial spin labeling and diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging-derived metrics. Neuroradiology 60:169–177
El-mewafy Z, Abdel Razek AAAK, El-Eshmawy M, Abo El-Eneen N, EL-Biaomy A (2018) MR spectroscopy of the frontal region in patients with metabolic syndrome: correlation with anthropometric measurement. Pol J Radiol 83:e215–e219
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of our institutional review board (IRB) after its approval and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Our IRB determined that patient approval and informed consent were not required because of retrospectively reviewing images and records.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rahatli, F.K., Sezer, T., Has, A.C. et al. Evaluation of cortical thickness and brain volume on 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging in children with frontal lobe epilepsy. Neurol Sci 41, 825–833 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-019-04135-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-019-04135-4