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Comparison of manual tracing versus a semiautomatic radial measurement method in temporal lobe MRI volumetry for pharmacoresistant epilepsy

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Introduction

The aim of this study was to test a modified radial semiautomated volumetry technique (radial divider technique, RDT) versus the manual volumetry technique (MVT) for proportionality of temporal subvolumes in 30 patients with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy.

Methods

Included in the study were 30 patients (15 female, 15 male; mean age 39.6 years) with pharmacoresistant epilepsy (mean duration 26.6 years). MRI studies were performed preoperatively on a 1.5-T scanner. All image processing steps and volume measurements were performed using ANALYZE software. The volumes of six subregions were measured bilaterally; these included the superior temporal gyrus (STG), middle + inferior temporal gyrus (MITG), fusiform gyrus (FG), parahippocampal gyrus (PHG), amygdala (AM), and hippocampus (HP). Linear regression was used to investigate the relationship between the comparable subvolumes obtained with MVT and RDT.

Results

Very high correlations (R 2 >0.95) between RDT and MVT were observed for the STG + MITG and the STG + MITG + FG, but low correlations for the PHG subvolumes and the combined PHG + HP + AM subvolumes. These observations were independent of the side of the pathology and of hemisphere.

Conclusion

The two measurement techniques provided highly reliable proportional results. This series in a homogeneous group of TLE patients suggests that the much quicker RDT is suitable for determining the volume of temporolateral and laterobasal temporal lobe compartments, of both the affected and the non-affected side and the right and left hemisphere.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the TR3 Collaborative Research Project (Sonderforschungsbereich) “Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy”. We thank Prof. Elger and colleagues of the Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn, for evaluating patients and for their close and longstanding collaboration. We also thank Petra Suessmann, Sabine Richter and Sandra Thulke for technical support and statistical analysis.

Conflict of interest statement

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud Str. 25, 53105, Bonn, Germany

    Christian-Andreas Mueller, Jasmin Scorzin & Johannes Schramm

  2. Department of Radiology Neuroradiology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Roy Koenig & Horst Urbach

  3. Institute of Medical Biometry, Informatics and Epidemiology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Rolf Fimmers

  4. Department of Neurosurgery, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Josef Zentner

  5. Department of Neurosurgery, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Thomas-Nicolas Lehmann

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  1. Christian-Andreas Mueller
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  2. Jasmin Scorzin
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Correspondence to Christian-Andreas Mueller.

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C.-A. Mueller and J. Scorzin contributed equally to this work.

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Mueller, CA., Scorzin, J., Koenig, R. et al. Comparison of manual tracing versus a semiautomatic radial measurement method in temporal lobe MRI volumetry for pharmacoresistant epilepsy. Neuroradiology 49, 189–201 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-006-0171-3

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