Abstracts

Rationale: To explore the altered brain network functional connectivity in patients with catamenial epilepsy and its associations with sex hormone levels.

Methods: We perform resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in female patients with catamenial epilepsy, female patients with non-catamenial epilepsy and health controls in menstrual period. Another fMRI was performed for patients with catamenial epilepsy in ovulatory period willingly. Plasma levels of six sex hormones were tested during the 2-5 days of menstrual periods for all participants. Intranetwork and internetwork connectivity of independent component analysis (ICA) determined resting-state brain networks were compared between groups. The correlation between intranetwork, internetwork connectivity and plasma hormone levels were analyzed.


Results: A total of 98 patients (25 patients with catamenial epilepsy, 34 patients with non-catamenial epilepsy, and 39 healthy controls) were included in this study. Intranetwork connectivity and internetwork connectivity of default mode network and visual network were significantly altered in patients with catamenial epilepsy ((p< 0.05, FWE corrected). Patients with catamenial epilepsy showed different connectivity pattern of multiple networks between menstrual period and ovulatory period (p< 0.05, uncorrected). Plasma levels of progesterone were significantly correlated with intranetwork and internetwork functional connectivity of visual network in patients with catamenial epilepsy.


Conclusions: Patients with catamenial epilepsy demonstrated altered functional connectivity and different connectivity patterns between menstrual period and ovulatory period. And such alteration is correlated with progesterone levels. The current results indicated the importance of sex hormones in epilepsy and potential sex hormones based therapy in women with catamenial epilepsy.


Funding: This study is supported by Post-Doctor Research Project, West China Hospital, Sichuan University (No. 2023HXBH073).