MR imaging in epilepsy that is refractory to medical therapy

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. (orig.)