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Progressive topological disorganization of brain network in focal epilepsy
Author(s) -
Park K. M.,
Lee B. I.,
Shin K. J.,
Ha S. Y.,
Park J.,
Kim T. H.,
Mun C. W.,
Kim S. E.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/ane.12899
Subject(s) - epilepsy , diffusion mri , medicine , clustering coefficient , neuroscience , magnetic resonance imaging , psychology , radiology , psychiatry , computer science , cluster analysis , artificial intelligence
Objective Increasing evidence has suggested that epilepsy is a network disease. Graph theory is a mathematical tool that allows for the analysis and quantification of the brain network. We aimed to evaluate the influences of duration of epilepsy on the topological organization of brain network in focal epilepsy patients with normal MRI using the graph theoretical analysis based on diffusion tenor imaging. Methods We prospectively enrolled 66 patients with focal epilepsy (18/66 patients were newly diagnosed) and 84 healthy subjects. All of the patients with epilepsy had normal MRI on visual inspection. All of the subjects underwent diffusion tensor imaging that was analyzed using graph theory to obtain network measures. Results The measures of characteristic path length and small‐worldness in the patients with focal epilepsy were significantly decreased, even after multiple corrections ( P < .01). Moreover, the measures including mean clustering coefficient and global efficiency in the patients with epilepsy had strong tendency to decrease compared to those in healthy subjects ( P = .0153 and P = .0138, respectively). When comparing the measures among the patients with newly diagnosed/chronic epilepsy and healthy subjects using ANOVA , the characteristic path length ( P = .006), small‐worldness ( P = .032), and global efficiency ( P = .004) were significantly different. In addition, the duration of epilepsy was negatively correlated with global efficiency ( r = −.249, P = .0454). Conclusions We newly found a progressive topological disorganization of the brain network in focal epilepsy. In addition, we demonstrated disrupted topological organization in focal epilepsy, shifting toward a more random state.