BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE It is not known whether carbamazepine (CBZ; a drug widely used in neurology and psychiatry) influences the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast changes induced by neuronal activation and measured by functional MRI (fMRI). We aimed to investigate the influence of CBZ on memory induced activation of the mesial temporal lobes in patients with symptomatic tempora...

OBJECTIVE There are competing explanations for persistent postoperative seizures after temporal lobe surgery. One is that 1 or more particular subtypes of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) exist that are particularly resistant to surgery. We sought to identify a common brain structural and connectivity alteration in patients with persistent postoperative seizures using preoperative quantitat...

The identification of brain regions generating seizures ('epileptogenic zone', EZ) in patients with refractory partial epilepsy is crucial prior to surgery. During pre-surgical evaluation, this identification can be performed from the analysis of intracerebral EEG. In particular, the presence of high-frequency oscillations, often referred to as 'rapid discharges', has long been recognized as a ...

Commentary While most patients receiving neurosurgical treatment for medically intractable temporal lobe epilepsy have hippocam-pal atrophy (HA) on MRI, there is another subgroup with mesial temporal epilepsy with a normal appearing hippocampus, with different clinical features and surgical outcome (1). Both of these subtypes of mesial temporal epilepsy are associated with widespread atrophy ou...

PURPOSE Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) represents a common cause of refractory epilepsy. It is considered a sporadic disorder, but its occasional familial occurrence suggests the involvement of genetic mechanisms. METHODS Siblings with intractable epilepsy were referred for epilepsy surgery evaluation. Both patients were examined using video-EEG monitoring, MRI examination and PET imaging. Th...

Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most important cause of medically intractable seizures. Complex partial seizures, the main clinical manifestation of temporal lobe epilepsy, arise primarily from the mesial temporal structures, the amygdala, and the hippocampus [1 , 2) . This form of epilepsy is also the most readily treatable with surgery: in most series, recovery is reported in 60-85% of cases [3...

An association between acute CNS infections and seizures is reported in the literature. The etiology of these seizures is, in some cases, precipitated by epileptogenic pathogenesis of the infectious agent in the brain parenchyma. A different etiology of seizures as a consequence of infections, independent of the infectious agent, relates to the inflammatory reaction. Thirdly, the febrile respon...

BACKGROUND Fludeoxyglucose F 18 positron emission tomography ((18)F-FDG-PET) can detect focal metabolic abnormalities ipsilateral to the seizure focus in 80% of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Regions outside the epileptogenic zone can also be affected. We hypothesized that these remote regions might show altered metabolism, tending to return toward normal values, after surgery. D...

Temporal lobe epilepsies represent the most frequent form of focal epilepsies [1]. The seizures are frequently difficult to control with antiepileptic medication and eventually 30-50% of patients have to be considered as medically refractory. Epilepsy surgery can be considered as a valuable treatment option for these patients rendering 70-90% of them seizure-free [2]. Thus, exact localization o...

introduction : shared neuropathology hypothesis in schizophrenia and temporal lobe epilepsy has been introduced long term ago. similar neuropathology leads to the analogous clinical features like neuropsychological features as an example. the aim of this study was to examine this hypothesis by the means of comparing neuropsychological functions in these two patient groups. method : present stud...