[Morphology of epileptic leukoencephalopathy]

Special interest has never been focused on the pathology of white matter in the epileptogenic brain. In the authors' material obtained from 129 patients in the course of the open surgery because of temporal epilepsy marked alterations of the white matter of the temporal lobe were found. These alterations include different processes which can be combined in general syndrome of epileptic leukoencephalopathy. Changes in the vascular system of the brain include: arterial wall sclerosis, hyalinosis, and arterial convolution development, abnormal structure of the brain blood barrier. Pathology of myelin include heavy damage of sheets and total demyelinisation of some axons. Cyst formation with complex walls; gliosis-apparently the majority part of cells are young astrocytes. All these alterations in white matter contribute to pathogenesis of epilepsy.