Performing resting state functioning MRIs can help distinguish temporal lobe epilepsy that’s accompanied by mesial temporal sclerosis (TLE-MTS) from temporal lobe epilepsy without the sclerosis. That conclusion was dreached by researchers who compared 34 TLE patients to 34 controls who were matched for age and gender and in whom the presence of mesial temporal sclerosis was definitively established by means of histologic examination of surgical tissue. More specifically, the investigators found that the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) in the blood oxygen level-dependent resting state fMRI was reduced in the ipsilateral amygdala and hippocampus among TLE patients with mesial temporal sclerosis. By contrast, among TLE patients without sclerosis, there was only marginally reduced fALFF in the ipsilateral amygdala but none in the hippocampus.
Reyes A, Thesen D, Wang X, Hahn D, Yoo D, Kuzniecky R et al. Resting-state functional MRI distinguishes temporal lobe epilepsy subtypes. Epilepsia. 2016;57(9):1475-1484.
