Neural fragility as an EEG marker of the seizure onset zone

AbstractPurposeChildren undergoing stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG)-guided epilepsy surgery represent a complex cohort. We aimed to determine whether the proportion of putative seizure onset zone (SOZ) contacts resected associates with seizure outcome in a cohort of children undergoing SEEG-guided resective epilepsy surgery.MethodsPatients who underwent SEEG-guided resective surgery over a six-year period were included. The proportion of SOZ contacts resected was determined by co-registration of pre- and post-operative imaging. Seizure outcomes were classified as seizure free (SF, Engel class I) or not seizure-free (NSF, Engel class II-IV) at last clinical follow-up.ResultsOf 94 patients undergoing SEEG, 29 underwent subsequent focal resection of whom 22 had sufficient imaging data to be included in the primary analysis (median age at surgery of 10 years, range 5-18). Fifteen (68.2%) were SF and 7 (31.8%) NSF at median follow-up of 19.5 months (range 12-46). On univariate analysis, histopathology, was the only significant factor associated with SF (p<0.05). The percentage of defined SOZ contacts resected ranged from 25-100% and was not associated with SF (p=0.89). In a binary logistic regression model, it was highly likely that histology was the only independent predictor of outcome, although the interpretation was limited by pseudo-complete separation of the data.ConclusionHistopathology is a significant predictor of surgical outcomes in children undergoing SEEG-guided resective epilepsy surgery. The percentage of SOZ contacts resected was not associated with SF. Factors such as spatial organisation of the epileptogenic zone, neurophysiological biomarkers and the prospective identification of pathological tissue may therefore play an important role.

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Interictal high frequency background activity as a biomarker of epileptogenic tissue

Brain Communications ◽

10.1093/braincomms/fcab188 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Truman Stovall ◽

Brian Hunt ◽

Simon Glynn ◽

William C Stacey ◽

Stephen V Gliske

Keyword(s):

Logistic Regression ◽

Confidence Interval ◽

High Frequency ◽

High Frequency Oscillation ◽

Epileptogenic Zone ◽

Odds Ratios ◽

Seizure Onset ◽

High Frequency Oscillations ◽

Seizure Onset Zone ◽

Background Data

Abstract High Frequency Oscillations are very brief events that are a well-established biomarker of the epileptogenic zone, but are rare and comprise only a tiny fraction of the total recorded EEG. We hypothesize that the interictal high frequency “background” data, which has received little attention but represents the majority of the EEG record, also may contain additional, novel information for identifying the epileptogenic zone. We analyzed intracranial EEG (30–500 Hz frequency range) acquired from 24 patients who underwent resective surgery. We computed 38 quantitative features based on all usable, interictal data (63–307 hours per subject), excluding all detected high frequency oscillations. We assessed association between each feature and the seizure onset zone and resected volume using logistic regression. A pathology score per channel was also created via principle component analysis and logistic regression, using hold-out-one-patient cross validation to avoid in-sample training. Association of the pathology score with the seizure onset zone and resected volume was quantified using an asymmetry measure. Many features were associated with the seizure onset zone: 23/38 features had odds ratios >1.3 or < 0.7 and 17/38 had odds ratios different than zero with high significance (p < 0.001/39, logistic regression with Bonferroni Correction). The pathology score, the rate of high frequency oscillations, and their channel-wise product were each strongly associated with the seizure onset zone (median asymmetry > =0.44, good surgery outcome patients; median asymmetry > =0.40, patients with other outcomes; 95% confidence interval > 0.27 in both cases). The pathology score and the channel-wise product also had higher asymmetry with respect to the seizure onset zone than the high frequency oscillation rate alone (median difference in asymmetry > =0.18, 95% confidence interval >0.05). These results support that the high frequency background data contains useful information for determining the epileptogenic zone, distinct and complementary to information from detected high frequency oscillations. The concordance between the high frequency activity pathology score and the rate of high frequency oscillations appears to be a better biomarker of epileptic tissue than either measure alone.

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The Connectivity Index: An Effective Metric for Grading Epileptogenicity

10.1101/635664 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Qi Yan ◽

Nicolas Gaspard ◽

Hitten P Zaveri ◽

Hal Blumenfeld ◽

Lawrence J. Hirsch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Average Distance ◽

Single Pulse ◽

Brain Regions ◽

Control Site ◽

Connectivity Index ◽

Evoked Responses ◽

Seizure Onset ◽

Seizure Onset Zone ◽

Site Of Stimulation ◽

Stimulation Of

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the performance of a metric of functional connectivity to classify and grade the excitability of brain regions based on evoked potentials to single pulse electrical stimulation (SPES).MethodsPatients who received 1-Hz frequency stimulation between 2003 and 2014 at Yale at prospectively selected contacts were included. The stimulated contacts were classified as seizure onset zone (SOZ), highly irritative zone (IZp) or control. Response contacts were classified as seizure onset zone (SOZ), active interictal (IZp), quiet or other. The normalized number of responses was defined as the number of contacts with any evoked responses divided by the total number of recorded contacts, and the normalized distance is the ratio of the average distance between the site of stimulation and sites of evoked responses to the average distances between the site of stimulation and all other recording contacts. A new metric we labeled the connectivity index (CI) is defined as the product of the two values.Results57 stimulation-sessions in 22-patients were analyzed. The connectivity index (CI) of the SOZ was higher than control (median CI of 0.74 vs. 0.16, p = 0.0002). The evoked responses after stimulation of SOZ were seen at further distance compared to control (median normalized distance 0.96 vs. 0.62, p = 0.0005). It was 1.8 times more likely to record a response at SOZ than in non-epileptic contacts after stimulation of a control site. Habitual seizures were triggered in 27% of patients and 35 % of SOZ contacts (median stimulation intensity 4 mA) but in none of the control or IZp contacts. Non-SOZ contacts in multifocal or poor surgical outcome cases had a higher CI than non-SOZ contacts in those with localizable onsets (medians CI of 0.5 vs. 0.12, p = 0.04). There was a correlation between the stimulation current intensity and the normalized number of evoked responses (r = + 0.49, p 0.01) but not with distance (r = + 0.1, p 0.64)ConclusionsWe found enhanced connectivity when stimulating the SOZ compared to stimulating control contacts; responses were more distant as well. Habitual auras and seizures provoked by SPES were highly predictive of brain sites involved in seizure generation.

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