CBF changes in drug naive juvenile myoclonic epilepsy patients.
OBJECTIVE
The role of thalamus and brainstem in generalized epilepsy has been suggested in previous studies. The aim of the present study was to assess regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) abnormality in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) patients.


METHODS
(99m)Tc-ethylcysteinate dimer brain single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) was performed in 19 drug naive JME patients and 25 normal controls with the similar age and gender distribution. Differences of rCBF between a JME group and a normal control group were examined by the statistical parametric mapping of brain SPECT images using independent t test. The regression analyses in SPM were also performed between rCBF and the age of seizure onset or the disease duration in JME group.


RESULTS
Compared to normal controls, the JME group showed a significant rCBF reduction in bilateral thalami, red nucleus, midbrain, pons, left hippocampus, and in the cerebelli (FDR corrected p < 0.01) whereas rCBF increase in the left superior frontal gyrus (uncorrected p < 0.001 but FDR corrected p > 0.05). Disease duration was negatively correlated with rCBF in bilateral frontal cortices, caudate nuclei, brainstem and cerebellar tonsils.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that abnormal neural networks in the thalamus, hippocampus, brainstem and cerebellum are associated with JME.
Tae
Woo Suk
WS
Department of Neurology Samsung Medical Center & Center for Clinical Medicine, SBRI, Sungkyunkwan, University School of Medicine, Gangnam-Gu, Seoul, Korea.
Joo
Eun Yeon
EY
Han
Sun Jung
SJ
Lee
Kyung-Han
KH
Hong
Seung Bong
SB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D004831:Epilepsies, Myoclonic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods
D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime