Role of Diffusion-Weighted and Contrast Enhanced MRI Brain in the Evaluation of Paediatric Epilepsy

Abstract

Background: Epilepsy is a disease that is distinguished by enduring proclivity to produce epileptic seizures as well as neurobiological, cognitive, psychological, & social consequences of this situation. Objectives: to identify & characterize lesions resulting epilepsy in children (zero-fifteen years) & to determine the frequency of etiological factors responsible for epilepsy in children (zero-fifteen years) using MRI brain. Patients and methods: Qena University Hospital, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt, hosted this prospective cohort research. This research was shown on 50 children with Epilepsy in the duration between January 2021 till January 2022. Results: Cortical malformation disorders were found in 11 patients (22%), infective and inflammatory lesions in 8 patients (16%), vascular lesions in 4 patients (8%), phakomatosis in 5 patients (10%), white matter disorders in 4 patients (8%), neoplastic lesions in 6 (12%). ADC significance was at a cutoff value of 2.23 x10-3 mm2/s for identifying abnormality, with a sensitivity of 95percent & precision of 98%, with PPV of 99.6percent & NPV of 78.9%. Conclusion: There was an agreement between MRI and EEG findings. According to MRI, the most common findings were cortical malformation disorders followed by Infective and inflammatory lesions. Due to its high diagnostic yield in identifying epileptogenic substrates, multiplanar capability, & absence of ionizing radiation, MRI is indeed the initial examination of choice in seizure studied cases.