Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Epilepsia. 2014 May;55(5):674-682. doi: 10.1111/epi.12581. Epub 2014 Mar 20.
Brain imaging studies have shown widespread structural abnormalities in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) within and beyond the affected temporal lobe, suggesting an altered network. Graph theoretical analysis based on white matter tractography has provided a new perspective to evaluate the connectivity of the brain. The alterations in the topologic properties of a whole brain white matter network in patients with TLE remain unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the white matter network in a cohort of patients with left TLE and mesial temporal sclerosis (mTLE) compared to healthy controls.
Anatomic brain networks of 16 patients with left mTLE were compared to those of 21 healthy controls. A white matter structural network was constructed from diffusion tensor tractography for each participant, and network parameters were compared between the patient and control groups.
Patients with left mTLE exhibited concurrent decreases of global and local efficiencies and widespread reduction of regional efficiency in ipsilateral temporal, bilateral frontal, and bilateral parietal areas. Communication hubs, such as the left precuneus, were also altered in patients with mTLE compared to controls.
Our results demonstrate white matter network disruption in patients with left mTLE, supporting the notion that mTLE is a systemic brain disorder.
脑影像学研究表明，颞叶癫痫（TLE）患者在受影响的颞叶内外存在广泛的结构异常，提示存在网络改变。基于白质束追踪的图论分析为评估大脑的连通性提供了新的视角。TLE 患者整个大脑白质网络拓扑性质的改变尚不清楚。本研究的目的是比较左颞叶内侧硬化（mTLE）患者和健康对照者的白质网络。
将 16 例左 mTLE 患者的解剖脑网络与 21 例健康对照者进行比较。对每位参与者进行弥散张量追踪构建白质结构网络，并比较患者组和对照组之间的网络参数。
左 mTLE 患者表现为全局和局部效率同时降低，同侧颞叶、双侧额叶和双侧顶叶区域的区域效率广泛降低。与对照组相比，mTLE 患者的左侧楔前叶等通讯枢纽也发生了改变。
我们的研究结果表明左 mTLE 患者的白质网络中断，支持 mTLE 是一种系统性脑疾病的观点。
