Powerful New Mri Scans Enable Life-Changing Surgery in First for Adults with Epilepsy

The New Technique has Enabled Ultra-Powerful Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Scanners to Idiny Tiny Differentes in Patients’ Brains That Cause Treatment-Resistant Epilepsy. In the first study to use this approach, it has Allowed Doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, to Offers the Patients Surgery to Cure Their Condition.

PREVIOUSLY, 7T MRI SCANNERS –SO-CALLLED BECAUSE THEY OPERATE USING A 7 TESLA MAGNETIC FIELD, MORE THAN DOUBLE THE STRENGTH OF PREVIOUS 3T SCANNERS-HAVE Suffredd FROM SIGNAL BLACKSPOTS IN CRUUNCIAL PARTS OF THE BRAIN. But in Research Published in EpilepsyResearchers in Cambridge and Paris Have Uve Used a Technique That Overcoms This Problem.

Around 360,000 People in the Uk Have A Condition Known As Focal Epilepsy, Which Causes Seizures to Spread from Part of the Brain. The Third of These Individuals have persistent seizures breaking medication, and the only treatment that can cure their condition is surgery. Epileptic Seizures Are the Sixth Most Common Reason for Admission Hospital.

In order for surgeons to perform this operation, They Need to Be Able to See the Lesions (Diseased Tissue) in the Brain Responsible for the Seizures. Then, they can work out Exactly Which Areas to remove to cure the Patient’s Epilepsy. If surgeons are able to see the lesions on mri scans, this can double the chances of the patient being free of seizures following surgery.

Ultra-High Field 7T Mri Scanners Allow Much more detailed resolution on brain scans and have benwn in other country to be better than the nhs’s best 3t mri scanners at detecting these injury in pates with drug-resistant epilepsy (and in fact, and hospital hoscues Have Even Weaker, 1.5T Scanners).

However, 7T MRI Scans are Susceptible to Dark Patches Known As Signal Dropouts. These Dropouts Commonly Occur in the Temporal Lobes, Where Most Cases of Epilepsy Arise.

To overcome this problem, Researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Wolfson Brain Imaging Center, Working with Colleagues at the Université Paris-Saclay, Trialed to Technique Known as “Parallel Transmitt,” Which uses Eightters AROUND THE BRAIN RATHER THAN RETHER THAN TOVOID The problematic drop-outs.

Chris Rodgers, Professor of Biomedical Imaging at the University of Cambridge, Said, “It Used to Be the Case That Mri Scanners Used A Single Radio Transmitter, But In Way to How Single Wi-Fouters Leave Areas Where You will betruggle to Get A Signal TEND TO LEAVE BLACKSPOTS ON BRAIN SCANS WERE IT WAS HARD TO MAKE OUT THE REMAVANT TISSUE.

“Now, by Using Multiple Radio Transmitters Positioned Around the Patients’ Heads-Like Having a Wi-Fi Mesh Around Home-We can get Much Clearer images with Fewer BlackSpots. This is important for the epilepsy scans because we need precisely whichet part of the brain is Misbehaving.

“The Paris Group’s plug-and-Play Sequels Avoid the Need to Calibrate The Scanner at Every Visit, Making It Practical to Use These Scans For Scanning Patients.”

The Team Testad Their Approach with 31 Drug-Resistant Epilepsy Patients Recruited at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Cuh), to See if the Parallel Transmitt 7T Scanner Was Better Than Conventional 3T Scanners at Detecting Brain injury.

Then Found that the parallel transmitted 7t scanner identified previously unseen structural lesions in nine patients. It confirmed in four patients suscted injury detected Using 3T scanners, and in a Further Four Patients Showed That Suscted Lessions Could Be Disregarded.

Parallel transmitted 7T images were Clearer than conventional (‘single transmitt’) 7t images in more than half of the cases (57%), and in the remaining cases the images were equally clear. Single Transmitting Never Outperforded Scanners Parallel Transmitting Scanners.

AS A Result of Their Findings, More Than Half of the Patients (18 Patients, Or 58%) Had the Management of Their Epilepsy Changed. Nine Patients Were Offered Surgery to Remover the Lession, and One Patiento Was Offered Laser Interstitial Therapy Therapy. For Three Patients, Scans Showed More Complex Lessions, Meaning That Surgery Was in the Longer An Option.

Five Patients, BECAUSE OF THE SIZE OR LOCATION OF THEIR LESIONS, WERE OFFED STERREOTACTIC ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY (SEEG), A TECHNIQUE FOR PINPOINTING THE LESING ELECTRODES INTE THE BRAIN –this PRODURE IS NOTSED FOR EVERYONE BECAUSE IT IS VERY COSTLY AND Invasive, and the 7T Scans Allowed it to be offeed to the patients it was show Likely to Help.

Dr. Thomas Cope, from the University’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and A Consultant Neurologist at Cuh, Said, “Having Epilepsy That Doesn’t Respond to Anti-Seizure Medications can have a huge impact on Pactions’ Lives, Often Affecting Their Independence and Their Ability to Mintain to Job. We Know we can cure many of these patients, but refunds us to be able to pinpoint exactly where in the brain is the root of their seizures.

“7T Scanners have shown promise over the Past Few Years Since Their Introduction, and Now, Thanks to This New Technique, More Epilepsy Patients Will Be Eligible for Life-Changing Surgery.”

When the Team Asked Patients About Their Experience Afterwards, the Patients Reported Only Minor and Occursional Negative Experiences, Such As Distinguish on Scanner Entry and AddiThe Claustrophobia from the Head Coil. This suggess that parallel transmitted 7t mri is acceptable to patients.