Diagnostic Value of Structural and Functional Neuroimaging in Autoimmune Epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy is a common nervous system disease, which affects about 70 million people all over the world. In 2017, the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) considered immune factors as its independent cause, and the concept of autoimmune epilepsy (AE) was widely accepted. Early diagnosis and timely treatment can effectively improve the prognosis of the disease. However, due to the diversity of clinical manifestations, the expensive cost of autoantibody detection, and the increased prevalence in Western China, the difficulty for clinicians in early diagnosis and treatment has increased. Fortunately, convenient and fast imaging examinations are expected to help even more. The imaging manifestations of AE patients were characteristic, especially the combined application of structural and functional neuroimaging, which improved the diagnostic value of imaging. In this paper, several common autoantibodies associated with AE and their structure and function changes in neuroimaging were reviewed to provide help for neurologists to achieve the goal of precision medicine.

Application value of molecular imaging technology in epilepsy

“…Approximately 70 million people have epilepsy worldwide (Guo K, et al, 2020). Recurrent epilepsy influences patient cognitive function (Lagogianni C, et al, 2020), language (Bartha‐Doering L and Trinka E, 2014) and other functions, and some patients even have other diseases, such as depression and anxiety (Yang Y, et al, 2020). According to different forms of seizures, various auxiliary examinations and other underlying etiologies, the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) classified epilepsy into different types in 2017 ( Figure 1 ).…”