Magnetization Transfer Imaging Study Of Conventional MRI-negative Epilepsy At3.0T High Field Magnetic Resonance Scaner

Objective:To study cerebral microstructure changes in patients with conventional MRI-Negative epilepsy by magnetization transfer imaging technique, explore Correlation between MTR and the illness duration, and improve the understanding of epilepsy pathophysiological mechanisms.Methods:Forty-two patients from outpatient Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical College in2011took part in this study. The Patient group (male25. female17) were diagnosed by two experienced doctors of Neurology. according to the diagnostic criteria of the International League Against Epilepsy and EEG. Ten patients were excluded because of the intracranial organic disease found by conventional MRI or image quatliy. So.32cases (male17, female15) were analyzed finally.32age-, sex-, handedness-and education level-matched healthy volunteers were recruited for normal control group. All participants or guardians gave written informed consent and the study was approved by the institutional ethical review board. Magnetization transfer imaging (MTI) and conventional MRI were performed in32patients and32sex-and age-matched healthy volunteers by3.0T Trio A Tim MR scanner. MTI data processing and analysis were performed using voxel-wise analysis approaches as implemented in statistical parametric mapping (SPM2) software, including coregister, MTR calculating, normalization and smoothing. Two-sample t-test was used to compare with two groups. Correlation between MTR and the illness duration was analyzed. The differences of p<0.05would be considered as statistical significance.Results:Compared with normal control group. MTR reduction areas were mainly located in bilateral middle frontal gyrus. anterior cerebellar lobe, right medial prefrontal. paracentral lobule, superior frontal gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule (p<0.05).Correlative analysis showed that MTR was negatively correlated with the occipital lingual gyrus. fusiform gyrus and left posterior lobe of cerebellum. Conclusion:MTI can detect the potential subtle pathological changes of conventional MRI-negative epilepsy, and provide a theoretical basis for pathophysiological mechanism in epilepsy.