Abstract
Drug-resistant epilepsy can be most limiting for patients, and surgery represents a viable therapy option. With the growing research on the human connectome and the evidence of epilepsy being a network disorder, connectivity analysis may be able to contribute to our understanding of epilepsy and may be potentially developed into clinical applications. In this magnetoencephalographic study, we determined the whole-brain node degree of connectivity levels in patients and controls. Resting-state activity was measured at five frequency bands in 15 healthy controls and 15 patients with focal epilepsy of different etiologies. The whole-brain all-to-all imaginary part of coherence in source space was then calculated. Node degree was determined and parcellated and was used for further statistical evaluation. In comparison to controls, we found a significantly higher overall node degree in patients with lesional and non-lesional epilepsy. Furthermore, we examined the conditions of high/reduced vigilance and open/closed eyes in controls, to analyze whether patient node degree levels can be achieved. We evaluated intraclass-correlation statistics (ICC) to evaluate the reproducibility. Connectivity and specifically node degree analysis could present new tools for one of the most common neurological diseases, with potential applications in epilepsy diagnostics.
Highlights
As one of the most common neurological diseases, epilepsy is affecting over 50 million people worldwide [1]
The current study focuses on this necessary prerequisite for any clinical application, i.e., whether node degree is truly increased in patients
We investigate if measurement conditions—vigilance and eyes open/closed—may lead to connectivity characteristics in healthy controls that abolish this contrast
Summary
As one of the most common neurological diseases, epilepsy is affecting over 50 million people worldwide [1]. A recent meta-analysis suggests new anti-epileptic drugs have not been able to treat sufficiently up to 25% of all patients [2], while persisting seizures or side effects of medication have a negative influence on each individual’s quality of life. This is where epilepsy surgery provides an alternative for long-term seizure control in such pharmacoresistant cases [3,4]. Seizure freedom rates range from approximately 50% up to 90% [5,6,7,8], recurrence after 2–5 years occurs in approx. The prerequisite for successful surgery and long-term seizure freedom is the exact localization and complete resection of the epileptogenic zone [11]. 4.0/).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
