Advanced MRI in childhood epilepsy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Investigating local and network brain changes in childhood epilepsy with quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
IRAS ID
243811
Contact name
Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder in children, about 50000 children in the UK. Around 30% of patients with epilepsy do not respond to medical treatment and, at the time of diagnosis, it is very difficult to predict who these children will be. Neuroimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have helped, but performing neuroimaging in children is practically difficult, so there is little research in childhood epilepsy.
In addition to being practically challenging, identifying brain changes on MRI is complicated by extensive changes occurring during normal brain development. This means that brain abnormalities that may be present in epilepsy could be masked by normal brain changes and therefore that our sensitivity to these brain abnormalities may depend on age. To address this difficulty of investigating epilepsy in the changing brain, we will combine new methods of brain imaging with statistical models of brain development to sensitively identify regions of the brain that are associated with treatment resistance in epilepsy. In children for whom neurosurgery may help relieve their seizures, we will use the same models to retrospectively detect focal brain abnormalities.
Even with new methods, brain abnormalities can be visually subtle on conventional MRI scanners. To address this, we will also explore the use of 7 tesla MRI to detect small or subtle tissue changes with new imaging contrasts (e.g. microstructural and susceptibility weighted images) or very high-resolution conventional images.
This is an academic study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, and jointly sponsored by King's College London and Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust. Infants and children with epilepsy will be recruited from the Evelina Children's Hospital and King's College Hospital, screened to ensure they are suitable by doctors at KCL and compared to children who don't have epilepsy.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1766
Date of REC Opinion
28 Dec 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion