Voxel-based 3D-MRI-analysis for the detection of focal cortical dysplasia

Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD), i.e., neuronal derangement due to developmental malformation, is increasingly recognized as an underlying cause of formerly cryptogenic focal epilepsy. However, in subtle cases, its diagnosis by visual evaluation of magnetic resonance images (MRI) remains difficult. Here, we present three novel techniques for postprocessing of 3-dimensional (3D) MRI which may improve lesion detection by enhancing image properties not readily accessible by visual analysis. Following the principles of voxel-based morphometry a T1-weighted MRI volume data set (MPRAGE) is normalized and segmented usin…