Pre-operative evaluation in pediatric patients with cortical dysplasia

Electromagnetic source imaging predicts surgical outcome in children with focal cortical dysplasia

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of electromagnetic source imaging (EMSI) in localizing spikes and predict surgical outcome in children with drug resistant epilepsy (DRE) due to focal cortical dysplasia (FCD).

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed magnetoencephalography (MEG) and high-density (HD-EEG) data from 23 children with FCD-associated DRE who underwent intracranial EEG and surgery. We localized spikes using equivalent current dipole (ECD) fitting, dipole clustering, and dynamical statistical parametric mapping (dSPM) on EMSI, electric source imaging (ESI), and magnetic source imaging (MSI). We calculated the distance from the seizure onset zone (DSOZ) and resection (DRES). We estimated receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves with Youden's index (J) to predict outcome.

RESULTS

EMSI presented shorter DSOZ (15.18 ± 9.06 mm) and DRES (8.56 ± 6.24 mm) compared to ESI (DSOZ: 25.04 ± 16.20 mm, p < 0.009; DRES: 18.88 ± 17.30 mm, p < 0.03) and MSI (DSOZ: 23.37 ± 8.98 mm, p < 0.03; DRES: 15.51 ± 10.11 mm, p < 0.02) for clustering in patients with good outcome. Clustering showed shorter DSOZ and DRES compared to ECD fitting and dSPM (p < 0.05). EMSI had higher performance as outcome predictor (J = 70.63%) compared to ESI (J = 41.27%) and MSI (J = 33.33%) for clustering.

CONCLUSIONS

EMSI provides superior localization and improved predictive performance than individual modalities.

SIGNIFICANCE

EMSI can help the surgical planning and facilitate the localization of epileptogenic foci.

Clinical and Surgical Approach for Cerebral Cortical Dysplasia

The present article describes pathophysiological and clinical aspects of congenital malformations of the cerebral tissue (cortex and white matter) that cause epilepsy and very frequently require surgical treatment. A particular emphasis is given to focal cortical dysplasias, the most common pathology among these epilepsy-related malformations. Specific radiological and surgical features are also highlighted, so a thorough overview of cortical dysplasias is provided.

Definitions and classification of malformations of cortical development: practical guidelines

Malformations of cortical development are a group of rare disorders commonly manifesting with developmental delay, cerebral palsy or seizures. The neurological outcome is extremely variable depending on the type, extent and severity of the malformation and the involved genetic pathways of brain development. Neuroimaging plays an essential role in the diagnosis of these malformations, but several issues regarding malformations of cortical development definitions and classification remain unclear. The purpose of this consensus statement is to provide standardized malformations of cortical development terminology and classification for neuroradiological pattern interpretation. A committee of international experts in paediatric neuroradiology prepared systematic literature reviews and formulated neuroimaging recommendations in collaboration with geneticists, paediatric neurologists and pathologists during consensus meetings in the context of the European Network Neuro-MIG initiative on Brain Malformations (https://www.neuro-mig.org/). Malformations of cortical development neuroimaging features and practical recommendations are provided to aid both expert and non-expert radiologists and neurologists who may encounter patients with malformations of cortical development in their practice, with the aim of improving malformations of cortical development diagnosis and imaging interpretation worldwide.

Ictal and interictal source imaging on intracranial EEG predicts epilepsy surgery outcome in children with focal cortical dysplasia

OBJECTIVE

To localize the seizure onset zone (SOZ) and irritative zone (IZ) using electric source imaging (ESI) on intracranial EEG (iEEG) and assess their clinical value in predicting epilepsy surgery outcome in children with focal cortical dysplasia (FCD).

METHODS

We analyzed iEEG data from 25 children with FCD-associated medically refractory epilepsy (MRE) who underwent surgery. We performed ESI on ictal onset to localize SOZ (ESI-SOZ) and on interictal discharges to localize IZ (ESI-IZ). We tested whether resection of ESI-SOZ and ESI-IZ predicted good surgical outcome (Engel 1). We further compared the prediction performance of ESI-SOZ and ESI-IZ to those of SOZ and IZ defined using conventional methods, i.e. by identifying iEEG-contacts showing ictal onsets (conventional-SOZ) or being the most interictally active (conventional-IZ).

RESULTS

The proximity of ESI-SOZ (p = 0.043, odds-ratio = 3.9) and ESI-IZ (p = 0.011, odds-ratio = 7.04) to resection has higher effect on patients' outcome than proximity of conventional-SOZ (p = 0.17, odds-ratio = 1.7) and conventional-IZ (p = 0.038, odds-ratio = 2.6). Resection of ESI-SOZ and ESI-IZ presented higher discriminative power in predicting outcome (68% and 60%) than conventional-SOZ and conventional-IZ (48% and 53%).

CONCLUSIONS

Localizing SOZ and IZ via ESI on iEEG offers higher predictive value compared to conventional-iEEG interpretation.

SIGNIFICANCE

iEEG-ESI may help surgical planning and facilitate prognostic assessment of children with FCD-associated MRE.