Computation and Informatics in Biology and Medicine (CIBM) Seminar:

Epilepsy and seizures affect almost 3 million Americans of all ages, at an estimated annual cost of $15.5 billion in direct and indirect costs. In addition, approximately 200,000 new cases of seizures and epilepsy occur each year. And out of the ten percent of the American population who will experience a seizure in their lifetime three percent will develop epilepsy by age 75 there are more than 40 types of epileptic syndromes that are defined by repeated epilepstiform discharges or seizures. The prevalence of epilepsy is the highest of all neurological disorders in the world, and there are an estimated sixty million peoples around the world diagnosed with epilepsy. About 300,000 American children under the age of 14 have epilepsy. For some epilepsy can be treated with medication and they eventually outgrow it, but for other, living with epilepsy is lifelong challenge. Furthermore, the impact of epilepsy on neurodevelopment and the long-term effects of epilepsy are poorly understood. Defining the effects of epilepsy in the long-term requires illuminating the role and possible interaction of a number of factors that influence this disorder. These factors include altered neurobiological processes that antedate the first recognized seizure epilepsy, and the changes caused by repeated seizures. This research helped elucidate the state of the brain at onset of epilepsy and the subsequent changes caused by epileptic seizures.

The work of this presentation is a part of a longitudinal study of recent-onset idiopathic epilepsy in children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18 years at recruitment. Unlike other cross sectional studies of chronic epilepsy with this longitudinal design we were able to separate the antecedent and progressive effects of chronic epilepsy. Three sets of data were collected for each participant with a two-year separation between time one and two and six years between time one and time three. Data collected included a T1, T2 and DWI MRI scans as well as comprehensive neuropsychological testing. The experiments completed to date involved cross-sectional investigations of time three data of the pediatric epilepsy population. The work has involved developing the post-processing methods for analyzing DTI and structural MRI data.