Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry of white matter in medial temporal lobe epilepsy

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze whole-brain white matter changes in medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied 23 patients with MTLE and 13 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) on T1-weighted 3D datasets. The seizure focus was right sided in 11 patients and left sided in 12. The data were collected on a 1.5 T MR system and analyzed by SPM 99 to generate white matter density maps. RESULTS: Voxel-based morphometry revealed diffusively reduced white matter in MTLE prominently including bilateral frontal lobes, bilateral temporal lobes and corpus callosum. White matter reduction was also found in the bilateral cerebellar hemispheres in the left MTLE group. CONCLUSION: VBM is a simple and automated approach that is able to identify diffuse whole-brain white matter reduction in MTLE.