An rs-fMRI based neural marker for MRI-negative temporal lobe epilepsy with depression.

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Epilepsy Research
• Psychiatric Comorbidities

Background:

• Depression is a common comorbidity in epilepsy, often diagnosed subjectively.
• Current diagnostic methods for comorbid depression in epilepsy are prone to missed or misdiagnosis.
• Objective biomarkers are needed for accurate diagnosis of depression in epilepsy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate network homogeneity (NH) using support vector machine (SVM) for diagnosing MRI-negative temporal lobe epilepsy with depression (MRI-negative TLED).
• To identify potential neuroimaging markers for MRI-negative TLED.

Main Methods:

• Resting-state fMRI data from 217 participants (90 healthy controls, 45 MRI-negative TLE, 82 MRI-negative TLED) were analyzed.
• Network homogeneity (NH) was computed and analyzed using support vector machine (SVM).

Main Results:

• MRI-negative TLED patients showed altered NH values in several brain regions compared to healthy controls.
• Significantly decreased NH in the left parahippocampal gyrus (PHG) was observed in MRI-negative TLED patients compared to both healthy controls and MRI-negative TLE patients.
• SVM analysis indicated that decreased NH in the left PHG achieved 71.56% diagnostic accuracy for differentiating MRI-negative TLED from healthy controls.

Conclusions:

• Decreased NH in the left PHG shows potential as an objective neuroimaging biomarker for MRI-negative TLED.
• This finding could offer objective guidance for the diagnosis of comorbid depression in epilepsy.