title: Brain imaging in the assessment for epilepsy surgery.
abstract: Brain imaging has a crucial role in the presurgical assessment of patients with epilepsy. Structural imaging reveals most cerebral lesions underlying focal epilepsy. Advances in MRI acquisitions including diffusion-weighted imaging, post-acquisition image processing techniques, and quantification of imaging data are increasing the accuracy of lesion detection. Functional MRI can be used to identify areas of the cortex that are essential for language, motor function, and memory, and tractography can reveal white matter tracts that are vital for these functions, thus reducing the risk of epilepsy surgery causing new morbidities. PET, SPECT, simultaneous EEG and functional MRI, and electrical and magnetic source imaging can be used to infer the localisation of epileptic foci and assist in the design of intracranial EEG recording strategies. Progress in semi-automated methods to register imaging data into a common space is enabling the creation of multimodal three-dimensional patient-specific datasets. These techniques show promise for the demonstration of the complex relations between normal and abnormal structural and functional data and could be used to direct precise intracranial navigation and surgery for individual patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK; National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK; Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross, UK. Electronic address: j.duncan@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK; National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK; Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross, UK.
authors.forename: Gavin P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Winston
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK; National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK; Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy, Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross, UK.
authors.forename: Matthias J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Koepp
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK; Translational Imaging Group, Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, London, UK; National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK.
authors.forename: Sebastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ourselin
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods*