Quantitative MRI techniques to detect occult lesions in epilepsy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging techniques to detect occult lesions in individuals with epilepsy
IRAS ID
166977
Contact name
Smaragda Agathou
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
UCL/UCLH Joint Research Office (R&D)
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
In focal epilepsy patients where drug treatment is ineffective, surgically removing the epileptogenic lesion is a common curative treatment. Identification of this lesion in these cases is critical, and is typically done by identification on clinical MRI scans and confirmation through EEG measurements. In a significant portion of patients surgery is a high-risk option because no lesion is visible on MRI. In this work, we aim to use multiple state-of-the-art MRI techniques to visualise occult lesions. Our overarching aim is to increase the number of patients that qualify for curative treatment. Pilot data has shown great potential to detect lesions in patients with no abnormality visible on routine clinical MRI. We will compare any newly detected lesions to a control group of patients with known lesions to try and characterize them.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0416
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion