Epilepsy Leads to More Brain Abnormalities Over Time Scans show
increasing anatomical changes in the brains of people with
epilepsy as they age TUESDAY, April 3 (HealthDay News) -- Aging
accelerates brain-structure abnormalities in people with
childhood-onset temporal-lobe epilepsy, a new study says.
Temporal-lobe epilepsy is the most common type of partial
epilepsy, with about 60 percent of all epilepsy patients having
this form of the disease. Previous research suggests that people
with childhood-onset epilepsy have significant mental and
developmental problems that continue into adulthood,
particularly in those who don't respond to seizure medications.
Prior studies also have found that patients with temporal-lobe
epilepsy have structural abnormalities in many areas of the
brain. But there is limited knowledge about how aging affects
these abnormalities. In the study, researchers from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison used MRI to examine the brains
of 55 patients with chronic temporal-lobe epilepsy and 5