Electroencephalography source imaging(ESI) as a diagnostic tool in Patients with magnetic resonance negative focal epilepsy (MRN-E)

Background and Aim : Epilepsy is a type of central nervous system disorder that causes abnormal brain activity. These abnormal activities can result in seizures, unusual behaviors, or even loss of consciousness. Magnetic resonance imaging is a very useful modality for detection of epileptic lesions. Despite advances in MR imaging techniques, MRN-E ( magnetic resonance negative focal epilepsy) is still the most difficult scenario for diagnostic and treatment planning, especially in patients with extratemporal lobe focus of lesion. Electroencephalography (EEG) source imaging (ESI) can contribute to identification of the epileptic focus in patients with normal MRI. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether ESI can improve diagnostic accuracy of MRN-E patients.Methods : We reviewed the related published articles in Science Direct, PubMed and Google Scholar using keywords such as epilepsy , MRI , EEG , ESI and MRN-E . About 10 fully relevant articles were extracted and reviewed. Then the effect of ESI in accurate diagnosis of epileptic lesions was assessed.Results : In all papers long-term video-EEG recording was performed using standard EEG with 19, 21, or 31 electrodes and impedances were kept below 10 kOhm. Then epileptic spikes detectable in surface EEG were used for ESI imaging. Studies showed that ESI correctly localized the epileptic focus within the resection margins and in some studies ESI could even localize the epileptic focus outside the resection margins.Conclusion : The results of our study showed that ESI imaging can effectively improve diagnostic and treatment accuracy of epilepsy and encourage broadening its application to patients with MRN-E.

کلیدواژه ها:

epilepsy ، MRN-E ، EEG ، ESI