CURVILINEAR RECONSTRUCTION OF 3D MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING IN PATIENTS WITH PARTIAL EPILEPSY - A PILOT-STUDY

In an attempt to better delineate the abnormalities associated with fo cal cortical dysgenesis, we performed curvilinear reformatting of the cortex from 3D magnetic resonance (MR) images. Illustrative patients w ith partial seizures and conventional orthogonal MRI evaluation show t hat small regions of cortical thickening suggestive of focal dysplasti c lesions may not be recognized. In three such patients the curvilinea r reformatting demonstrated two additional focal abnormalities of the cortical gyri and better defined the two focal lesions found on conven tional orthogonal MR images. This method promises to a be useful tool in the evaluation of epileptic patients with proven or suspected subtl e structural cortical abnormalities, particularly focal neuronal migra tion disorders where cortical thickening, abnormal gyral pattern, and poor delineation of the gray-white matter transition are the main find ings.