Mount Sinai receives $3M NIH grant to study advanced MRI for drug-resistant epilepsy
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have received more than $3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate whether advanced MRI techniques can help identify seizure-causing brain regions in people with drug-resistant epilepsy.
The five-year study will evaluate whether measurements of brain tissue stiffness and blood flow can reveal seizure foci that may not be visible on conventional MRI. More precise localization could help clinicians determine whether patients are candidates for epilepsy surgery and identify the appropriate surgical approach.
One technique under investigation is magnetic resonance elastography, which measures tissue mechanical properties such as stiffness. Researchers will combine these measurements with MRI assessments of cerebral blood flow to look for differences between seizure-causing regions and surrounding brain tissue.
The team also will analyze blood samples for biomarkers associated with gliosis, a response involving changes in glial cells that can occur following brain injury or disease. Imaging findings will be compared with electroencephalography, tissue removed during surgery and clinical outcomes after treatment.
The project builds on observations from epilepsy surgeons suggesting that tissue in seizure-onset regions sometimes feels firmer than surrounding tissue during surgery. Researchers hope to determine whether MRI can measure these differences noninvasively before an operation.
Mount Sinai's 7T MRI scanner will support these efforts, as its powerful sequences provide ultrahigh resolution images that conventional scanners cannot acquire. However, the team also intends to examine whether the imaging techniques used can be adapted to smaller 3T scanners.
The study is a collaborative effort between multiple specialists in epilepsy, neurosurgery, radiology, MRI technology and biomarker analysis; it also will include collaborators at the University of Washington who have expertise in MRE biomechanical analysis. The researchers eventually hope to pursue a larger clinical trial to determine whether incorporating these imaging measurements improves treatment decisions and outcomes. They also plan to explore potential applications in children with drug-resistant epilepsy.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.