I was wondering if the problems within the brain that cause seizure can be picked up by a MRI... but I'm talking about things other those caused by tumors. I'm just not sure if this can be the case or if you can only find them with eeg's.

My dd seizures maybe caused by a heterotopia in the brain, the heterotopia was found through MRI. The MRI can find the cause, if the cause is from a abnormality in the brain structure. Hope that makes sense. There is a new machine called an MEG that is similar to an EEG but it measure magnetic brain waves instead of electrical brain waves (I think it can actually measure both, but I am not sure).

I wish I could post some of the images from some of the MRI studies I've had over the past 4 years. MRI technology has come a long way in the past few years. I have temporal lobe epilepsy and even I could pick out the problem from the images. Many problems can't be seen in MRIs but many can. They use the MRI in a different way now, it's called fMRI, functional MRI. It can see where the glucose is being used in the brain during different tasks. I was asked to identify faces, do math problems in my head, read and just a bunch of other things while in the MRI. This is used more for finding what parts of the brain are needed, like a WADA test before surgery. That's how it was used with me.

wow, both MEG and fMRI sounds pretty cool. Its werid that I haven't heard about it yet. Is fMRI pretty new as well?

I have heard alot recently about the fMRI, but Rachel (my dd) has never had one, probably because of her age. We just saw the neurologist yesterday and they are going to schedule her for the MEG. He told me that instead of the 50 something sensors used in an EEG, the MEG uses over 200, it also picks up deeper brain activity instead of just surface. I will keep you posted if you want.

can you tell me what dd means? I seems to be seeing that a lot lately I'm totally lost to the referance.

And yes, keep me posted.

If you're able, ask them if they have tried to use this to try and help people with other movement disorders as well or if its currently being used in studies to help try to discover sources of problems, such as things like tourette... which is a BIG unknown currently. I'd greatly appriecate it.

In cyper talk dd=darling daughter, ds=darling son, dh=darling husband, etc. :)

I am not sure what all the MEG is used for, but it is funny that you mentioned movement disorders and tourettes. Rachels (my dd :D ) neurologist specializes in movement disorders and specifically tourettes. I will ask him when we are in next.

This is an explination as well as I can give of the funcional MRI,fMRI. It's done in a standard MRI but instead of the injection tracer they give you an oral tracer that contains glucose tagged with radiation, a very small amount. After the glucose is absorbed into your bloodsrteam your put into the MRI. They ask you questions like identifying familiar faces and landmarks. They asked me to do math problems in my head and read. If you've had MRIs you know they have a small window above where they place you. That's where they show you the different problems and things to identify. This identifys what part of the brain is using the most glucose during these different tasks meaning that's the part being used to solve the problem. I's new. I had mine done 2 years ago on an NIH study. They hope to use it instead of the WADA test for presurgery on the brain. I had it done for that purpose because I had some blockage in one artery in my neck and couldn't have the WADA test. I talked to a doctor who does the fMRI studies now and they take about an hour. The ones I had took 4 or 5 hours but it was a study. I hope this gives a little explination. Jeff

Wow, that makes the MRI I had 2 years ago sound prehistoric. Basically, I just laid there with earplugs and stayed still until it was over. My MRI was clean, so I wonder if it would be worth scheduling another one on the assumption that recent advancements in technology would make the cause of my seizures more discernible. It would be great to finally find the cause behind all this, and maybe get more specified treatment/meds.

Does anyone know more about these new MRIs? Would an MRI taken 2-3 years ago really be considered out-of-date? Any info/advice would be greatly appreciated. :)

If you do a search fo functional MRI I think you can find some good sites that will give you some good information on the fMRIs. I had gamma knife surgery 2 1/2 years ago and since then all I've had are standard MRIs. The last I heard it was still in a study stage of some type at the NIH so I don't think it's widely avalible. I don't think the standard MRIs are out dated at all but I'm not a rediologist either. The problems in my temporal lobe were visible in MRIs, fMRIs were used to locate the focal points of the seizures. MRI technology has come a long way in the past 10 years and it's advancing all the time but it would be more likely I think from what I've been told that if they could see something on a new MRI it would be because of damage done by the seizures. Many neuroscientists believe that the temporal lobes are damaged from seizures themselves. Before surgery my neurosurgeon showed me the latest MRIs and even I could pick out the problems in the temporal lobe. I cried.