Epilepsy research
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Periventricular nodular heterotopia (PNH) is an important cause of chronic epilepsy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate region-specific connectivity in PNH patients with epilepsy and assess correlation between connectivity strength and clinical factors including duration and prognosis. ⋯ Nodules in PNH were structurally and functionally connected to the cortex. The extent is stronger in patients with longstanding or intractable epilepsy. These findings suggest the region-specific interactions may help better evaluate prognosis and seek medical or surgical interventions of PNH-related epilepsy.
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Patients with drug refractory epilepsy (DRE) and a high level of education may differ in their language recovery after surgery. Our aim was to determine whether there were differences in the extent of improvement and pattern of reorganization of language functions on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) after surgery to treat refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) between patients with more than 12 years of formal education versus those with a shorter period of regular schooling. ⋯ Greater improvement in language skills and BOLD activation in the left hemisphere in TLE-patients (after epilepsy surgery) with a high level of education was similar to that of healthy controls, implying that education has an effect on the functional reorganization/recovery of language areas.