Bilateral cingulum fiber reductions in temporal lobe epilepsy with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis. Issue 94 (September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Urbach, H.; Egger, K.; Rutkowski, K.; Nakagawa, J.M.; Schmeiser, B.; Reisert, M.; Brandt, A.; Steinhoff, B.J.; Schulze-Bonhage, A.; Hammen, T.
• Is Part Of: European journal of radiology. Issue 94(2017)
• Page Start: 53
• Page End: 57
• Publication Date: 2017-09
• Subjects: Hippocampal sclerosis -- Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy -- MRI -- Diffusiontensor imaging -- Diffusiontensor tractography; Medical radiology -- Periodicals; Radiology -- Periodicals; Radiologie médicale -- Périodiques; Medical radiology; Periodicals; 616.075705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2017.07.015
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0720-048X

Abstract

Abstract: Purpose: To evaluate whether white matter tracts within the Papez circuit are altered in patients with unilateral hippocampal sclerosis (HS). Methods: Twenty patients with histologically proven unilateral HS and 20 age-matched controls were studied with a 3 T Epilepsy-dedicated MRI protocol including a MPRAGE sequence for hippocampus volumetry and a diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) sequence (61 diffusion-encoding directions, 2 × 2 × 2 mm 3 voxels) for diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). An energy-based global tracking algorithm was used to calculate streamline counts (SC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) of cingulate, fornix, and mammillo-thalamic tracts, respectively. Results: Sclerotic hippocampi were significantly smaller compared to the contralateral side and to age-matched controls. Cingulum SC but not FA were reduced on the hippocampal sclerosis (258 + 81.0) and contralateral side (271 + 85.6) compared to age-matched controls (447 + 138). Conclusion: Focusing on white matter tracts of the Papez circuit we showed that in patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy unilateral hippocampal sclerosis is associated with a bilateral reduction of cingulum association fibers projecting from the cingulate gyrus to the parahippocampal gyrus.