Abstracts

Rationale: The goal of this work is to determine the presence and degree of cerebellar atrophy within cerebellar substructures compared to healthy controls in temporal lobe epilepsy patients. Methods: Study participants were 36 patients suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy and 38 healthy controls. All patients in this study later underwent temporal lobe resection: 28 seizurefree patients (Engel class I) and 8 patients with persistent seizures after the surgery (Engel class IIIV). All subjects were examined using 1,5T MRI. Cerebellar volume was adjusted for total intracranial volume, age and gender and measured by means of voxel based morphometry. Cerebellar substructures were defined using Automated Anatomical Labeling (AAL) atlas. Results: There was no significant difference in total cerebellar volume between epileptics and controls. Total cerebellar volume appears non¬significantly smaller in epileptics. Analyzed within substructures using Mann¬Whitney non¬parametric testing and False Discovery Rate Correction for multiple comparison there was significant difference in volumes of two frontmost ( Vermis_1_2, Vermis_3 according do AAL) and the rearmost (Vermis_10 according to AAL) structures of cerebellar vermis compared to controls. Listed structures were of larger volume in epileptics. Conclusions: Cerebellar atrophy is probably more complex phenomenon, the character of changes differs significantly within the cerebellar substructures. Total cerebellar volume tends to be smaller in temporal lobe epilepsy patients compared to controls, nevertheless Funding: No