What brain structures does epilepsy affect?
Seizures can occur anywhere in the brain, but in children they frequently occur in the temporal and frontal lobes, affecting the functions that these regions control. A region of particular importance in adults with epilepsy, but less so in children, is the mesial, or middle, part of the temporal lobe.
What is structural mediated epilepsy?
Structural. Epilepsy is said to have a structural cause if there is a distinct, physical cause present in the brain that is known to substantially increase the risk of seizures. Structural abnormalities can be. Congenital: a developmental change in the brain the person is born with.
What is a functional MRI for epilepsy?
Functional MRI, now a full-fledged clinical service at UF Health, is used to identify ‘eloquent’ cortex in patients in whom there is concern that the seizure focus may be physically close to important brain areas for sensation, motor function or language.
What brain imaging is used for epilepsy?
The most common neuroimaging tests for epilepsy are computed tomography (CT scan) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Both produce a picture of how the brain looks. MRI is preferred because it provides more information than CT.
What part of the brain is most affected by epilepsy?
The temporal lobes are the areas of the brain that most commonly give rise to seizures. The mesial portion (middle) of both temporal lobes is very important in epilepsy — it is frequently the source of seizures and can be prone to damage or scarring.
How are seizures treated?
Treatments include: medicines called anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) surgery to remove a small part of the brain that’s causing the seizures. a procedure to put a small electrical device inside the body that can help control seizures.
What is a structural brain abnormality?
The structural brain abnormalities are likely to be the result of aberrant neuronal or glial proliferation, reflected, respectively, in site-specific neuronal size and number or in degree of myelination. Such abnormalities may be detectable by morphometric analysis of the brain.
What is a structural cause?
Cited examples of structural causes include trends in unemployment and poverty, the housing market, the structure of the economy generally, and large-scale social policies. Examples given of individual causes include mental illness, alcoholism, substance abuse, and lack of a work ethic.
What’s the difference between EEG and MRI?
MRI has a higher spatial resolution than electroencephalography (EEG). MRI with hyperintense lesions on FLAIR and DWI provides information related to brain activity over a longer period of time than a standard EEG where only controversial patterns like lateralized periodic discharges (LPDs) may be recorded.
What part of the brain is removed to stop seizures?
Hemispherectomy is a procedure to remove one side (hemisphere) of the folded gray matter of the brain (cerebral cortex). This surgery is generally reserved for children who experience seizures that originate from multiple sites in one hemisphere, usually the result of a condition present at birth or in early infancy.
What are the two main causes of epilepsy?
When epilepsy is diagnosed in older adults, it’s sometimes from another neurological issue, like a stroke or a brain tumor. Other causes can be related to genetic abnormalities, prior brain infection, prenatal injuries or developmental disorders. But in about half of people with epilepsy, there’s no apparent cause.