Surface and Voxel-Based Analysis of Multi-Modal Quantitative MRI for Pre-Surgical Evaluation of Epilepsy Patients

Ali R. Khan¹, Maged Goubran¹, Sandrine de Ribaupierre², Terry Peters¹

Pre-surgical localization of the epileptogenic zone is challenging with conventional techniques and often diagnostic scans are found to be negative. Quantitative MRI techniques such as relaxometry and diffusion tensor imaging can potentially detect subtle abnormalities through comparison against a healthy control population atlas. Two approaches for this technique, surface-based and voxel-based, are evaluated in performing patient-specific analyses using quantitative T1, T2 relaxometry, and DTI metrics (FA and MD). We show that both methods produce comparable results and can reveal abnormalities in patients with negative MRI findings.