A Framework for Evaluating Cortical Architectural Anomalies in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Patients
Abstract
Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) are localized regions of malformed cerebral cortex that are frequently associated with drug-resistant epilepsy. Currently, there is a lack of research towards providing quantitative methods for characterizing minor abnormalities in cortical architecture, hindering efforts to determine whether removal affects surgical outcome, and define potential imaging correlates. In our work, we have developed a tool to extract relevant features associated with cortical architectural abnormalities that can deal with artifacts including cortical layer distortions and morphological differences caused by cortical folding effects, and processing artifacts due to improper sectioning. This framework was applied to detect abnormalities across multiple subjects and slides using an unsupervised anomaly detection algorithm. Our results suggest that the technique is able to identify anomalies that correspond to visually-identifiable histological abnormalities. The frequency of abnormalities was found to differ among patients; however, the clinical significance of these findings is yet to be investigated.