Functional MRI lateralization of memory in temporal lobe epilepsy.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the feasibility of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to detect asymmetries in the lateralization of memory activation in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).
BACKGROUND: Assessment of mesial temporal lobe function is a critical aspect of the preoperative evaluation for epilepsy surgery, both for predicting postoperative memory deficits and for seizure lateralization. fMRI offers several potential advantages over the current gold standard, intracarotid amobarbital testing (IAT). fMRI has already been successfully applied to language lateralization in TLE.
METHODS: fMRI was carried out in eight normal subjects and 10 consecutively recruited patients with TLE undergoing preoperative evaluation for epilepsy surgery. A complex visual scene encoding task known to activate mesial temporal structures was used during fMRI. Asymmetry ratios for mesial temporal activation were calculated, using regions of interest defined in normals. Patient findings were compared with the results of IAT performed as part of routine clinical evaluation.
RESULTS: Task activation was nearly symmetric in normal subjects, whereas in patients with TLE, significant asymmetries were observed. In all nine patients in whom the IAT result was interpretable, memory asymmetry by fMRI concurred with the findings of IAT including two patients with paradoxical IAT memory lateralization ipsilateral to seizure focus.
CONCLUSIONS: fMRI can be used to detect asymmetries in memory activation in patients with TLE. Because fMRI studies are noninvasive and provide excellent spatial resolution for functional activation, these preliminary results suggest a promising role for fMRI in improving the preoperative evaluation for epilepsy surgery.