Research On Brain Metabolites Of Epileptic Seizures Based On Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Objective:Magnetic resonance spectroscopy(MRS)has shined in the field of medical brain metabolism due to its non-invasiveness.MRS was used to differentiate between temporal lobe epileptic seizures(TLES)and organic non-epileptic seizures(ONES),whose external manifestations are similar to TLES,and reveal whether different field strengths affect the sensitivity of distinguishing epilepsy patients from healthy controls.Methods:By case-control research idea,23 patients with TLES and 9 patients with ONES in the postictal phase underwent MRS examinations on a clinical GE 1.5T system,with 15 healthy controls in comparison.Statistical analyses on the ratios of brain metabolites were performed using the Mann-Whitney U test with age as a covariate.In addition,the MRS data of 29 TLES patients in the postictal phase and 6 healthy controls from a clinical GE 3T system was cross-compared with the 1.5T MRS data of 23 TLES patients and 5 healthy controls.Results:The results showed that N-acetyl-aspartate/Creatine(NAA/Cr)ratio of patients with TLES was statistically different from that of patients with ONES in the postictal phase,i.e.TLES 1.422±0.037,ONES 1.640±0.061,P=0.012 in left temporal pole,while TLES 1.470±0.052,ONES 1.687±0.084,P=0.023 in the right temporal pole.Magnetic resonance equipment does not cause differences in MRS data due to the difference in field strength of 1.5T or 3T(P<0.05).Besides,compared with healthy controls,patients with TLES in the postictal phase present significant differences in ratios of NAA/Cr,N-acetyl-aspartate/Choline(NAA/Cho),and NAA/(Cho+Cr).Conclusion:The results show that the significant difference in brain metabolites between the TLES group and the ONES group in the postictal phase is reflected in NAA/Cr.NAA/Cr can be used as a recommended reference value for distinguishing TLES from ONES,which has not been found in the references to the best of our knowledge.When MRS detects the content of brain metabolites to diagnose patients with epilepsy,there is no significant difference between the 1.5T system and the 3T system.The 1.5T system can be recommended as the first choice for diagnosis to save medical costs.