Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain in epileptic adult patients: experience in Ramathibodi Hospital.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of the present study was to classify the imaging structural abnormalities of epileptic adult patients referred for magnetic resonance imaging (MR imaging) of the brain at Ramathibodi Hospital and to correlate with the clinical data and EEG.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

MR imaging of 91 adult epileptic patients (age ranging from 15-85 years old with an average of 36.90 years old) were retrospectively reviewed and classified into eight groups according to etiologies. Then clinical data and EEG correlations were analyzed using the Kappa analysis. All of the MR imaging of the brain were performed at Ramathibodi Hospital from January 2001 to December 2002.

RESULTS

Secondary generalized tonic clonic seizure was the most common clinical presenting seizure type. Extra temporal lobe epilepsy was the most common clinical diagnosis. Of the thirty-three patients who underwent EEG before performing MR imaging, 17 had normal EEG From MR imaging, temporal lobe lesion was the main affected location and mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) was the most common cause of the epilepsy in patients. For age group classification, young adult (15-34 years old) and adult (35-64 years old) age groups, MTS was the most common etiology of epilepsy with cortical dysplasia being the second most common cause for the first group and vascular disease for the latter group. For the older age group (> 64 years old), vascular disease and idiopathic cause were equally common etiologies. MRI, EEG findings, and clinical data were all concordant with statistical significance.

CONCLUSION

MRI is the non-invasive modality of choice for evaluation of the epileptic patients. The result is concordant with the clinical and EEG findings. It can detect and localize the structural abnormality accurately and is useful in the treatment planning.