Advanced diffusion imaging for seizure focus detection in epilepsy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Advanced diffusion imaging: a new method to improve detection of the seizure focus in patients with epilepsy.
IRAS ID
274270
Contact name
Nigel Hoggard
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Epilepsy affects 0.5 – 1 % of the UK population and around 30% of patients with epilepsy do not have control of their seizures with medication. This drastically affects everyday life and can be life threatening, with around a thousand people in the UK dying each year because of their epilepsy.
MR imaging is central to the investigation of patients with epilepsy and the planning of surgery to cure it. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of these patients have brain abnormalities that are not detected by MR imaging. In a patient with drug resistant epilepsy, identification of an abnormality can provide a surgical target. Current evidence suggests that long-term outcomes for patients offered epilepsy surgery is favourable and that the surgery is cost-effective. Thus, techniques that improve the detection of brain abnormalities will have significant benefit.
Diffusion imaging is an MR imaging technique that produces images that depend on the movement of water molecules in brain tissues. Recent advances in diffusion imaging technology have shown significant promise for detecting abnormal regions associated with epilepsy that aren’t detected by other conventional imaging methods. However, the methods have only been implemented by a handful of specialist epilepsy imaging centres and applied to a very small number of patients.
This project will implement the advanced diffusion imaging sequence on the MRI scanner in Sheffield and evaluate its performance compared to other conventional and state-of-the-art imaging methods on patients with epilepsy. We will recruit and image patients that have some of the most subtle abnormalities that can be seen with conventional imaging. If the diffusion imaging method successfully identifies these abnormalities, then this will provide sufficient evidence and motivation to undertake a future larger study to assess whether it can also detect abnormalities not currently seen with other imaging methods.
REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/PR/0560
Date of REC Opinion
6 Nov 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion