Ultrahigh Field MRI
Sponsor: NIH-NIBIB (P30 NS076408, P41 EB015894)
Project Description: Increased signal noise performance of 7 Tesla MRI, compared with standard clinical MRI, can be translated into improved spatial resolution and improved tissue contrast. These improvements may support increased sensitivity and specificity of lesion detection and characterization in epilepsy, where current clinical imaging techniques have not diagnosed all relevant cerebral lesions. Many patients with epilepsy have normal brain MRI with current imaging protocols. This research protocol will address questions of whether 7T MRI can detect lesions in epilepsy patients whose clinical 3T MRI was normal, and whether patients who have lesions detected with clinical MRI will be shown to be more extensive lesions with 7T MRI or lesion characteristics that are better characterized with 7T MRI.
Initial findings of this ongoing study were reported in the journal Radiology (Henry TR, Chupin M, Lehéricy S, Strupp JP, Sikora MA, Sha ZY, Ugurbil K, Van de Moortele P-F. Hippocampal sclerosis in temporal lobe epilepsy: findings at 7 Tesla. Radiology 261: 199-209, 2011).
ROSE Trial
Sponsor: NIH-NINDS (U01 NS058634)
Project Description: This clinical trial, Radiosurgery or Open Surgery for Epilepsy, was designed to compare open surgery with radiosurgery in the treatment of patients with mesial temporal epilepsy. The trial was designed as a prospective randomized comparison of standard anterior temporal lobectomy vs. Gamma Knife radiosurgery for patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy. Patients are followed for a three-year period. Seizure remission between months 24-36 is the primary outcome measure. Secondary outcomes include neurocognitive outcomes (specifically, verbal memory for dominant hemisphere patients) as well as mood, function, quality of life, and cost.
Intracranial and Extracranial EEG
Sponsor: IRB-approved, financial support pending
Project Description: Intracranial EEG (IC-EEG) monitoring is used clinically to determine sites of ictal onset for planning epilepsy surgery. Compared with extracranial EEG (EC-EEG), recent research has shown that IC-EEG data offer greater opportunities for seizure detection and prediction. In particular, only IC-EEG can record very fast-frequency oscillations (“ripples” at 80-250 HZ, and “fast ripples” at 250-500 Hz), may detect seizure onset earlier and perhaps more definitively. Our study objectives include:
- To develop automated techniques for linear analysis of frequency, amplitude and topography in IC-EEG data
- To develop automated techniques for non-linear analysis of spatiotemporal properties in IC-EEG data
- To use these descriptive observations for hypothesis generation and, possibly, for future clinical applications in evaluation for epilepsy surgery
Neuromodulation and Chronic Neural Electrical Stimulation
Sponsor: Institute for Engineering in Medicine
Project Description: Neuromodulation is a rapidly-growing field of study, encompassing a wide spectrum of implantable and non-invasive technology for the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Faculty at the University of Minnesota are internationally recognized in several of these technologies, including deep brain stimulation (DBS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Our long-term scientific goal is to develop a program project grant at the University of Minnesota to further develop computational tools and techniques that enable systems-level mapping of brain networks before and after neuromodulation therapies to identify predictors of response and optimal subject intervention parameters.
Dr. Henry was the site P.I. for the SANTE Trial, the results of which were reported in Epilepsia (Fisher R, Salanova V, Witt T, Worth R, Henry T, et al. Electrical stimulation of the anterior nucleus of thalamus for treatment of refractory partial epilepsy. Epilepsia 51: 899-908, 2010).