Local organization to expand neurodiagnostic capabilities
The Mind Research Network (MRN) has received a two-year, $455,000 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH) to study high-frequency brain activity in infants with epilepsy.
Photo: The Mind Research Network
For most people, the treatment of epilepsy, a brain disorder where clusters of nerve cells suddenly produce large, abnormal, synchronous activity, involves controlling seizures with medications. But determining the most effective drug treatment can be time-consuming and relies on a rule-out process; and in some instances, pharmaceuticals are ineffective. In these situations, surgery is the only treatment option available.
If surgery treatment is indicated, clinicians must first determine the seizure onset zone. Unfortunately, this zone – or the area of the brain where a seizure starts – is difficult to identify; and, until now, the only method of pinpointing the area has been the utilization of an EEG (electroencephalography) and the insertion of intracranial electrodes. This procedure requires opening the skull, and therefore has associated risks, including infection. Moreover, this technique might not provide the precise information needed.
That’s where Dr. Julia Stephen, a research scientist at the Mind Research Network, comes in. The NIH award will provide Stephen with funds to study the use of a non-invasive procedure that uses the BabySquid®, a one-of-a-kind infant/child magnetoencephalograph (MEG) machine located at MRN, to identify the seizure onset zone.
The BabySquid® was invented by Dr. Yoshio Okada, director of the BRaIN Imaging Center at the University of New Mexico. Okada is a collaborator on the NIH study.
Dr. Pete Engel, an epileptologist at UCLA and a consultant on this project, has identified high-frequency activity called interictal spikes during brain surgery in adults. He has hypothesized that this high-frequency activity, which is associated with interictal spikes, may provide a better marker for identifying the seizure onset zone if it can be identified noninvasively. The current study will utilize the BabySquid® to noninvasively measure this high-frequency brain activity in children. This technique could help determine whether the interictal spikes are associated with the seizure onset zone.
“Once surgery becomes an option, it’s absolutely critical that clinicians have the ability to identify the seizure onset zone in infants and children as early as possible,” according to Stephen. “The earlier the surgery takes place, the less likely that damage can occur from seizure activity during the child’s critical brain-development period. We hope to develop a safer and simpler diagnostic tool for identifying the seizure onset zone; one that is timely and thus will allow for repair and subsequent normal brain development in these children.”
The research will involve 30 children from birth to six years of age who have epilepsy. Stephen adds that surgery is often not an option for children younger than four, because clinicians need to rule out the use of pharmaceuticals before proceeding with surgery.
The National Institutes of Health reports that more than two million people in the United States – about 1 in 100 – have experienced an unprovoked seizure or have been diagnosed with epilepsy. For about 80 percent of those diagnosed with epilepsy, the seizures can be controlled with medicines and surgical techniques.
Media Contacts: MRN - Dolores González, (505) 925-4747 or UNM - Luke Frank, (505) 272-3679; e-mail: lfrank@salud.unm.edu or