NCT06550726

High-resolution Multi-parametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Focal Epilepsy

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 66 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Patients with focal epilepsy often have diagnostic difficulties as their culprit for seizures are difficult to be picked up using conventional imaging. The current study is to investigate the utility of advanced MRI sequences on detection of subtle lesions accountable for focal epilepsy.

Detailed description

Focal epilepsy refers to having seizures arising from a specific part of the brain. In these patients, workup in magnetic resonance imaging is often necessary as patients with structural lesions have a much higher rate of seizures, ranging from 10% to 26% at 1 year and from 29% to 48% at 5 years. However, there is also a subgroup of patients who has epilepsy not adequately controlled by anti-epileptics with unrevealing first MRI study, a dedicated MRI protocol may reveal positive lesion in 30-65% of the cases. In these patients, several tricks can be applied to increase the detection rate. First, the used of a high-resolution MRI on a high-field scanner could be helpful, which can be increased the sensitivity up to 90%. The use of 7T-MRI in further picking up subtle lesions in patients presenting with epilepsy has been investigated, further affirming the role of high resolution MRI imaging. Secondly, the use of dedicated sequences, such as T1-weighted inversion recovery sequences which allow better distinction of grey and white matter, could also reveal subtle lesions such as polymicrogyria or Type 1 focal cortical dysplasia. This study is therefore aimed to apply the findings to the local settings, and specifically to investigate if T1-weighted inversion recovery sequences provides additional benefit in picking up more subtle lesions in patients who had an initial first negative MRI.

Conditions

• Epilepsies, Partial

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	Magnetic Resonance Imaging	Subjects will undergo MRI scanning in our 3T machine with dedicated high resolution sequences (including 2D T1-weighted inversion recovery sequences, 3D FLAIR MRI whole brain, 3D T1-weighted Sagittal MPRAGE; plus other sequences for the clinical purpose of pre-operative planning as per consensus with referring doctor)

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-09-01
• Primary completion: 2027-08-31
• Completion: 2028-08-31
• First posted: 2024-08-13
• Last updated: 2026-04-03

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Hong Kong