The correlation between cluster seizures and findings of magnetic resonance imaging in drug refractory epilepsy patients.

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurologic condition and affects peoples at all ages. Seizure clusters are generally referred to seizures that occur at close intervals with complete recovery between attacks. Various studies have reported a variety of frequencies and risk factors for this condition.

Method: We designed a study to determine the frequency of seizure cluster and to determine neuroimaging findings in these patients and also to evaluate the Correlation between Cluster Seizures and Findings of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Drug Refractory Epilepsy patients.

Results: After analyzing data from 568 refractory epilepsy patients, we found that the prevalence of cluster seizure variant is 14.43%. 29.26% of patients with a history of cluster seizure had no obvious abnormal MRI findings whereas 14.40 % of patients without history of cluster seizure had no obvious abnormal MRI findings (P-value <0.05). Compared to Drug Refractory Epilepsy patients without history of seizure clusters, patients with a history of seizure clusters had less abnormal MRI findings, less Mesial Temporal Sclerosis, and more Focal Cortical Dysplasia in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (p value <0.05).

Conclusions: Seizure cluster has a significant negative impact on the quality of life of patients. According to results of this study it seems that brain MRI findings of drug refractory epilepsy patients with a history of seizure clusters are different from brain MRI findings of drug refractory epilepsy patients without a history of seizure clusters. mesial temporal sclerosis is less frequent and focal cortical dysplasia is more frequent in brain MRI of drug refractory epilepsy patients with a history of seizure clusters compared to drug refractory epilepsy patients without a history of seizure clusters.