Epilepsy

Epilepsy is one of the most common and serious neurological conditions, affecting up to 300,000 Canadians. About 30% of these patients have seizures that cannot be controlled by any available therapy and many of the remaining patients have intolerable medication side effects or complications of therapy. Major objectives of the Epilepsy Imaging Research Program include to study how seizures are generated and how to predict the occurrence of a seizures in order to better treat and prevent seizures. Our research program complements our clinical Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. Our transformative research program uses novel imaging and EEG approaches to better understand how focal seizures are generated and how they affect the brain. Our imaging program also has a number of projects that have direct clinical impact, including the creation of clinical language fMRI and T2 relaxometry imaging programs that are now routinely used in making clinical decisions.

 

Investigators:

Paolo Federico, MD, PhD
Richard Frayne, PhD
Bradley Goodyear, PhD
James Scott MD, MSc

Key Publications:

Sharkey RJ, Kosior RK, Federico P, Frayne R. Age effects on voxel-based relaxometry used for epileptic patients. Epilepsy Research 2010; 92: 41-47.

Pinnegar CR, Khosravani H, Federico P. Time-frequency phase analysis of ictal EEG recordings with the S-transform. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2009; 56: 2583-93.

Kosior RK, Lauzon ML, Frayne R, Federico P. Single-subject voxel-based relaxometry for clinical assessment of temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsy Research 2009; 86: 23-31.

Khosravani H, Mehrota N, Rigby M, Hader WJ, Pinnegar CR, Pillay N, Wiebe S, Federico P. Spatial localization and time-dependant changes of electrographic high frequency oscillations in human temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia 2009; 50: 605-16.

Cunningham CJ, Zaamout Mel-F, Goodyear B, Federico P. Simultaneous EEG-fMRI in human epilepsy. Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences 2008; 35: 420-35.

Khosravani H, Pinnegar CR, Mitchell JR, Bardakjian BL, Federico P, Carlen PL. Increased high frequency oscillations precede in vitro low Mg2+ seizures. Epilepsia 2005; 46:1188-97.