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Brain Advance Access published online on July 16, 2008

Brain, doi:10.1093/brain/awn145
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© The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Different structures involved during ictal and interictal epileptic activity in malformations of cortical development: an EEG-fMRI study

L. Tyvaert, C. Hawco, E. Kobayashi, P. LeVan, F. Dubeau and J. Gotman

Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada

Correspondence to: Dr Louise Tyvaert, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, 3801 University Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2B4. E-mail: louise.tyvaert{at}mail.mcgill.ca

Malformations of cortical development (MCDs) are commonly complicated by intractable focal epilepsy. Epileptogenesis in these disorders is not well understood and may depend on the type of MCD. The cellular mechanisms involved in interictal and ictal events are notably different, and could be influenced independently by the type of pathology. We evaluated the relationship between interictal and ictal zones in eight patients with different types of MCD in order to better understand the generation of these activities: four had nodular heterotopia, two focal cortical dysplasia and two subcortical band heterotopia (double-cortex). We used the non-invasive EEG-fMRI technique to record simultaneously all cerebral structures with a high spatio-temporal resolution. We recorded interictal and ictal events during the same session. Ictal events were either electrical only or clinical with minimal motion. BOLD changes were found in the focal cortical dysplasia during interictal and ictal epileptiform events in the two patients with this disorder. Heterotopic and normal cortices were involved in BOLD changes during interictal and ictal events in the two patients with double cortex, but the maximum BOLD response was in the heterotopic band in both patients. Only two of the four patients with nodular heterotopia showed involvement of a nodule during interictal activity. During seizures, although BOLD changes affected the lesion in two patients, the maximum was always in the overlying cortex and never in the heterotopia. For two patients intracranial recordings were available and confirm our findings. The dysplastic cortex and the heterotopic cortex of band heterotopia were involved in interictal and seizure processes. Even if the nodular gray matter heterotopia may have the cellular substrate to produce interictal events, the often abnormal overlying cortex is more likely to be involved during the seizures. The non-invasive BOLD study of interictal and ictal events in MCD patients may help to understand the role of the lesion in epileptogenesis and also determine the potential surgical target.

Key Words: malformation of cortical development; EEG; functional MRI; epileptogenesis; seizure

Abbreviations: MCD, malformation of cortical development; ICA, independent component analysis; HFR, haemodynamic response functions

Received January 30, 2008. Revised June 5, 2008. Accepted June 13, 2008.


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