FMRI Correlates of Interictal Epileptic Activity in Patients with Idiopathic Benign Focal Epilepsy of Childhood. A Simultanous EEG- Functional MRI Study

The localization of the epileptic zone or related brain regions plays an important role in patients with focal epilepsy. So far there are no established non-invasive methods that allow such diagnostic procedure, especially in children with idiopathic focal epilepsy. Our aim was to demonstrate EEG-correlated functional MRI (EEG-fMRI) as a feasible method in children and to correlate our data with clinical and EEG findings. Using simultaneous EEG-fMRI in a 3 Tesla MR scanner (Siemens Trio, Erlangen) we detected blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes related to spontaneous interictal epileptic activity.…