Alterations in white matter integrity and correlations with clinical characteristics in children with non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy

Purpose: To complement the current research on altered white matter integrity in children with non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy (NL-TLE), especially the correlation between diffusion metrics and clinical characteristics, so as to provide imaging evidence for clinical practice.

Methods: Children with temporal lobe epilepsy and no lesions on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were retrospectively collected from 2016.01.01 to 2022.12.31, and typically developing children (TDC) with normal MRI were collected as control group. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) was used to compare the fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD) and radial diffusivity (RD) between the two groups. Twenty fiber bundles were used as regions of interest (ROIs) to extract and compare the diffusion metrics. Partial correlation analysis was performed to assess the association between diffusion parameters within ROIs and clinical characteristics.

Results: TBSS and ROI analysis showed that FA values decreased and MD and RD values increased in the NL-TLE compared with the TDC, without significant differences in AD values. FA values in all ROIs increased with age, while the MD and RD values decreased in all ROIs, and the AD values decreased in most ROIs. Epilepsy duration was negatively correlated with FA values and positively correlated with MD and RD values in specific fibers. Frequency of seizures was negatively correlated with the FA values in a few trats. Full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) was positively correlated with FA values and negatively with RD value in a few tracts.

Conclusion: Children with NL-TLE showed widespread alterations in white matter integrity, which were correlated with clinical characteristics.