Les chercheurs français et britanniques découvrent une nouvelle technique pour aider les patients épileptiques résistants aux médicaments.

The Brain Institute, epilepsy attacks are “are the manifestation of excessive brain activity resulting from a “hyperexcitation” of nerve cells-the neurons of the cerebral cortex“We are talking about epileptic syndromes. According to WHO, 50 million people are affected worldwide, including 60,000 in France.

The problem is that 30% of these individuals are pharmaco-resistants. For them, an intervention must be envisaged when the crisis generating fireplace is identified. To do this, it is a question of detecting brain lesions, using very powerful MRI scanners such as 7T scanners. Unfortunately, the latter are subject to signal losses, altering their precision.

The 7T parallel transmission scanner

To overcome this problem, scientists from the Wolfson brain imaging center from the University of Cambridge and the Paris-Saclay University have developed a brand new technique using eight issuers instead of one. This has drastically reduced signal losses.

A study has proven that thanks to this new technique, (scanner with parallel transmission 7T), formerly invisible structural lesions have been discovered in nine patients. The latter were able to benefit from surgery.

“” “An anticonvulsant resistant epilepsy can have a considerable impact on the lives of patients, often affecting their autonomy and their ability to maintain a job. We know that we can cure many of these patients, but this requires being able to precisely identify the brain region behind their crises”, Explains the Guardian Thomas Cope, a consultant neurologist at the Cambridge University Hospitals, at Guardian.

A solution that will have to be developed

Thomas Cope also declares that thanks to this new technique, several patients with epilepsy will be able to benefit from surgery which will be likely to change their lives! For Ley Sander, medical director of Epilepsy Society, this solution must be welcomed, like all those that make it possible to improve “the life of people with focal epilepsy that cannot be managed by drugs”.

“” “Each new technical innovation, it is important that clinical and research staff can have access to this equipment to develop and develop new treatments and approaches with their colleagues ”, declared the medical director to the British media. The tone is launched for this new treatment, which will surely be tested on a larger scale soon.