Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Anatomical Correlation of Human Temporal Lobe Landmarks in 3D Euclidean Space: A Study of Control and Epilepsy Disease Subjects

Abstract

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder of great importance to patients and society. Sclerosis is associated with neuronal loss and neurodegeneration in specific regions of the hippocampal formation. The hippocampal formation and temporal lobe are not the only regions affected; the chronicity of the disease extends the involvement to other brain regions. Our aim is to investigate the spatial relationship of anatomical structures in both control (CO) and epileptic (EP) subjects using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to determine changes in epileptic patients compared to healthy anatomical structures. Anatomical landmarks are identified and registered in 3D space to provide a reference for the brain structures; the 3D network is described quantitatively using planar distances, as well as measuring rostrocaudal and Euclidean distances. The planar and rostrocaudal distances are the most remarkable discriminators between CO and EP groups, especially between structures located in and outside the temporal lobe. The study achieves a 100% discrimination between the control group and the epileptic group with the discriminant use of two distances: D_PL, Hpe/Cde and D_RC, As/cae. Finally, discriminates 100% between the three study groups, control group CO, extratemporal lobe epilepsy ETLE and temporal lobe epilepsy TLE, with a total of 12 distances distributed in the three axes of space. This study allows us to hope for a future application, its clinical utility may allow us not only to identify processes (in our case, epilepsy), but also to obtain parameters of the evolution of the disease.