Epilepsy & behavior : E&B
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Apr 2018
Task activation and functional connectivity show concordant memory laterality in temporal lobe epilepsy.
In epilepsy, asymmetries in the organization of mesial temporal lobe (MTL) functions help determine the cognitive risk associated with procedures such as anterior temporal lobectomy. Past studies have investigated the change/shift in a visual episodic memory laterality index (LI) in mesial temporal lobe structures through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task activations. Here, we examine whether underlying task-related functional connectivity (FC) is concordant with such standard fMRI laterality measures. ⋯ Altered laterality patterns based on mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) pathology manifest as several different phenotypes, varying according to side of seizure onset and the specific mesial structures involved. There is good correspondence between task LI activation and FC patterns in the setting of LTLE, suggesting that reliable visual episodic memory reorganization may require both a shift in nodal activation and a change in nodal connectivity with mesial temporal structures involved in memory.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Apr 2018
Cannabidiol for treatment of refractory childhood epilepsies: Experience from a single tertiary epilepsy center in Slovenia.
Refractory epilepsies in children present a major burden for patients and their families. Cannabidiol (CBD) has been suggested as a potential treatment for refractory epilepsies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of add-on therapy with CBD for the treatment of refractory childhood epilepsies. ⋯ In our cohort of patients, CBD was found to have potential benefits as add-on therapy for refractory childhood epilepsies, mainly by reducing seizure burden.
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Epilepsy & behavior : E&B · Apr 2018
Multimodal, noninvasive seizure network mapping software: A novel tool for preoperative epilepsy evaluation.
Despite rigorous preoperative evaluation, epilepsy surgery achieves seizure freedom in only two-thirds of cases. Current preoperative evaluation does not include a detailed network analysis despite the association of network-level changes with epilepsy. ⋯ This modeling algorithm allows better definition of the global brain network and potentially demonstrates differences in connectivity between an epileptic and a non-epileptic brain. This finding may be useful for mapping cortico-cortical connections representing the putative epilepsy networks. With this methodology, we localized the epileptogenic brain and showed network asymmetry and long-distance cortical co-activation. This software tool is the first to use a multimodal, nonconcurrent, and noninvasive approach to model and visualize the epilepsy network.