Biomedical subjects

S F Berkovic

Publications and source records attributed to S F Berkovic.

219 records · Page 13Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Validation of a questionnaire for clinical seizure diagnosis.

A detailed questionnaire has been devised for diagnosis of seizure type. It is suitable for administration by trained interviewers, either directly or by telephone. A comparison of physician-based and questionnaire-based diagnoses showed almost perfect agreement in classification of patients into those with seizures of either generalized or focal origin. Substantial to almost-perfect agreement was reached in diagnosis of patients with most individual seizure types. Disagreement in differentiation between simple and complex partial seizures (CPS) probably reflects the limitations of the clinical method rather than of the questionnaire itself. The questionnaire should be of value in large-scaled clinical and epidemiologic studies.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Ictal 99mTc-HMPAO single photon emission computed tomography in children with temporal lobe epilepsy.

Seventeen ictal 99mTc-HMPAO single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) studies were performed in 15 children with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) aged 7-14 years (mean 10.3 years). Ictal SPECT was informative in 16 of 17 (94%) studies in 14 of 15 (93%) children, showing unilateral temporal lobe hyperperfusion. In all 16 informative ictal SPECT studies, lateralization was concordant with ictal EEG, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and pathology. In 4 children, ictal SPECT provided additional localizing information that was not apparent from concurrent ictal EEG recording. Blinded interpretation of ictal SPECT studies by two independent investigators showed correct lateralization of the epileptic focus in every child. Results of visual analysis of ictal SPECT images were corroborated by quantitative analysis. Although interictal SPECT studies showed a degree of temporal lobe hypoperfusion in all children, in 9 of 15 hypoperfusion was either minimal, bilateral, contralateral, or associated with extratemporal hypoperfusion. In children with TLE, ictal SPECT provides reliable lateralizing information to corroborate or supplement that obtained from surface EEG and MRI.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Optimizing the diagnosis of hippocampal sclerosis using MR imaging.

PURPOSE: To establish the optimal imaging parameters and MR features of hippocampal sclerosis. METHODS: Twenty-five outpatients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy and 10 control subjects were studied at 1.5T. Four features of hippocampal abnormality were specifically evaluated; increased hippocampal signal on T2-weighted images, decreased signal on T1-weighted images, hippocampal atrophy, and disruption of the internal hippocampal structure. RESULTS: Hippocampal sclerosis was diagnosed alone in 64% of patients and with ipsilateral pathology in a further 8%. In these 18 cases, increased hippocampal signal on T2-weighted images was seen in 77%, hippocampal atrophy in 83%, decreases signal on T1-weighted images in 83%, and disruption of the internal hippocampal structure in 89%. No abnormality was reported in any of the 10 control cases. CONCLUSIONS: Four MR features diagnostic of hippocampal sclerosis are reported. Inversion recovery images are very useful for identifying decreased signal in the hippocampus and loss of internal structure within the hippocampus. Based on an appreciation of these four features in optimized images, hippocampal sclerosis can be diagnosed with a high degree of accuracy and sensitivity.

Adolescent↗