Ferumoxytol Enhanced Hippocampal Vascular Imaging in Epilepsy

Hippocampal sclerosis is the most common pathological finding in temporal lobe epilepsy.

While CA1 and CA4 subregions are typically affected, considerable variability in the involvement of the different subregions has been recognized between patients with specific hippocampal subfield pathology being demonstrated to predict surgical outcomes in medically refractory patients. Developing novel imaging biomarkers for hippocampal subfield pathology that can be obtained in vivo has the potential to allow more accurate prediction of surgical outcomes prior to surgery.

A major challenge in studying hippocampal subregions is the small size of the structures which are often smaller than the resolution of conventional MRI techniques. Cerebral blood vessels can be visualized with MRI using a variety of methods, some which do not require MRI contrast and others that do. The advantage of non-contrast methods is that subjects do not require intravenous contrast injections while the disadvantage is that the non-contrast methods are not capable of visualizing smaller vessels.

Recently high-resolution vascular imaging of the hippocampus using ferumoxytol as an MRI contrast agent has been reported by researchers at Wayne State University. It is believed that this method would provide the detail required to address the hypothesis that the microvasculature of hippocampal subregions is disrupted in temporal lobe epilepsy.

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