Diagnostic Value of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in Morphometrical Analysis of basal ganglia in patients with Idiopathic Generalized Epilepsy

ntroduction: Idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) is a kind of epilepsy that has tonic-colonic characteristic and myocolonic tensions and its clinical symptom starts from the first 20 years of the life. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H1-MRS) technique applies as a noninvasive procedure to find metabolic disorders by evaluating brain metabolites. Purpose of this study was metabolical and morphological analysis of the thalamus using MRS imaging in patients with IGE. Materials and Methods: Applying H1-MRS (technique: PRESS-CSI), we evaluated thalamus images of 63 people (35 controls: 23 males, 12 females, ranging in age 19-46 years, average: 34.8±0.62 years) and 28 IGE patients (10 males, 18 females, ranging in age 20-49 years, average: 37.4±1.04 years). The data analyzed by SPSS (v.20). Results: Comparing the average NAA/Cr for the right thalamus, a significant reduction was seen between the control group and the IGE patients (p<0.0001). Likewise, for the left thalamus, the NAA/Cr was significantly decreased when we compared it for the control group and the IGE patients (p<0.001). Conclusion: H1-MRS could be a suitable diagnostic technique to evaluate epilepsy in IGE patients. The possible alteration of neuronal pathways in the thalamo-cortical circuit seems to play a critical role in epileptogenesis of IGE.