title: Determination of the dominant language hemisphere by functional MRI in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the dominant language hemisphere in patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy before surgical treatment by using functional MRI (fMRI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve patients underwent fMRI. Among them, 4 patients also underwent the Wada test. Anterior temporal lobectomy was performed on patients with epileptic focus on the non-dominant hemisphere, and selective amygdalo-hippocampectomy on patients with epileptic focus on the dominant hemisphere.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten patients had left dominance, and 2 right dominance. The fMRI results were concordant with Wada test results in the 4 patients who accepted the Wada test. Seven patients underwent anterior temporal lobectomy, and 5 underwent selective amygdalo-hippocampectomy. There was no post-operative dysphasia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  fMRI is an alternative method of noninvasive functional mapping for language dominance in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Huashan Hospital Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai 200040, China.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male