Abstracts

Rationale: Routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME) is normal or with minor abnormalities. Quantitative techniques of neuroimaging showed subtle abnormalities involving the thalamo-cortical network. Until now there are no typical abnormalities and routine imaging is useless for diagnosis and follow-up of these patients. This study investigates apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) features in the thalamus of patients with JME. Methods: 10 patients (7 women, mean age 26±7 years) with JME and 7 controls (3 women, 35±10 years) were submitted to 1.5T MRI. Routine DWI sequence was acquired. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were derived from this acquisition. A 2D pixel-based approach was used for analysis. Regions of interest (ROI) with 0.4cm2 were selected in the anterior, posterior and superior portion of the right and left thalamus and the mean ADC was extract. ANOVA test was used for statistical analysis after observation of normal distribution (Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Results: The values of the mean ADC were: a) patients 0.73±0.04 103 mm2/sec and 0.73±0.04 (posterior), 0.71±0.07 and 0.69±0.07 (anterior), 0.73±0.04 and 0.72±0.06 (superior) right and left thalamus respectively; b) controls 0.72±0.05 and 0.72±0.03 (posterior), 0.73±0.03 and 0.73±0.02 (anterior), 0.70±0.04 and 0.73±0.07 (superior). Statistical analyses did not revealed differences between the means of patients and controls but showed greater variance in JME group. Conclusions: In this preliminary evaluation there were no differences between the thalamic ADC of patients with JME and controls. However, a great variability was disclosed in patients with JME. Further investigations with increased number of patients are needed.