Cortical thinning in benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) with or without attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD)

Abstract The aim of this study is to evaluate the abnormal cortical structures associated with newly diagnosed benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS) patients and assessed the effects of comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD) on these abnormalities. Newly diagnosed BECTS patients (n = 33, 23 males) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 48) were evaluated by surface and volumetric MRI. CAT12 toolbox (HYPERLINK “http://www.neuro.uni-jena.de/cat/”\t“_blank” http://www.neuro.uni-jena.de/cat/, version r1109), SPM12(HYPERLINK“http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/software/spm12/”\t“_blank”http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/software/spm12/, version 6225) and MATLAB (9.5, Mathworks, Natick, MA) were used to gather CT estimates. An additional comparison was performed between BECTS children with (n = 13) and without ADHD (n = 20). BECTS patients had significantly smaller volume in left postcentral gyrus when compared to healthy controls. BECTS patients with ADHD had significantly thinner superior-inferior frontal cortex, superior temporal cortex, left pericalcarine, lingual and fusiform cortex to healthy controls. Also BECTS without ADHD patients had thinner cortical areas when compared to healthy controls, however the significance was more relevant in the BECTS with ADHD. The left fusiform cortex of BECTS patients with ADHD patients was significantly thinner than BECTS patients without ADHD. Our results showed that BECTS affects frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes by cortical thinning. Our study supports the need for better characterization of patients with BECTS so identification of different phenotypes can occur. Further studies are needed to investigate the relationship between BECTS and ADHD.