MRI in Autosomal Dominant Partial Epilepsy With Auditory Features

This study will examine the possible structural and functional abnormalities in patients with an inherited form of epilepsy. It will use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Uncontrolled epilepsy is a serious neurological problem with major harmful medical, social, and psychological effects, as well as greater mortality compared with the general population. The cost per year in the United States is at least $12.5 billion. There have been advances in diagnosing the disease, but the cause cannot be determined in many cases. Recently, several seizure syndromes found in families have been described. One syndrome of particular interest involves the lateral temporal lobe of the brain and often includes auditory features. Patients with that kind of syndrome may hear monotonous unformed sounds, but sometimes they may hear complex sounds, such as a song.

Patients are eligible for this study if they have a specific form of familial epilepsy that is being studied at Columbia University in New York. Family members without seizures are eligible as well. All the patients in the study will be evaluated at Columbia before participating. Healthy volunteers aged 18 to 55 also may be eligible for this study.

Participants will undergo a medical history and physical examination. During the study, they may have three or four sessions of MRI. During the MRI, patients will lie still on a table that can slide in and out of a metal cylinder surrounded by a strong magnetic field. Scanning time varies from 20 minutes to 3 hours, with most scans lasting between 45 and 90 minutes. Patients may be asked to lie still for up to 60 minutes at a time. As the scanner takes pictures, there will be loud knocking noises, and the patients will wear earplugs to muffle the sound. Patients will be able to communicate with the MRI staff at all times during the scan and may ask to be moved out of the machine at any time. Some scans may be done in a 3 Tesla scanner. It is the latest advance in MRI, with a stronger magnetic field than in the more common 1.5 Tesla scanner. Functional MRI (fMRI) is done while patients are performing tasks, such as moving a limb or speaking. Patients will have an opportunity to practice such tasks before entering the scanner. The fMRI will take about 1 hour.

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