Insular morphological abnormalities in focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures.

PURPOSE: Focal to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures (FBTCS) is the most severe form of epileptic seizures, posing a major challenge in both management and research. This study aimed to characterize microstructural abnormalities in the normal-appearing cortex of patients with FBTCS and assess their potential for individual-level identification.

METHODS

We retrospectively included 135 unilateral drug-resistant focal epilepsy patients with FBTCS (FBTCS+), 78 without FBTCS (FBTCS-), and 95 healthy controls (HCs). Surface-based morphometry analyses on T1-weighted images were conducted to compare cortical thickness, gyrification index, and sulcal depth among three groups. Significant brain regions between FBTCS + and FBTCS- groups were further segmented for sub-regional analysis. Using these morphological metrics, support vector machine (SVM) models were constructed and validated with cross-validation to differentiate FBTCS+ from FBTCS- patients and left-sided from right-sided epilepsy patients at the individual level.

RESULTS

Directly compared to the FBTCS- group, the FBTCS+ group presented significant cortical thinning and gyrification index increase in insula. Subregional analysis on insula revealed cortical thinning and gyrification index increase in the ipsilateral short gyri, and cortical thinning in the ipsilateral long gyrus and central sulcus. Using morphological metrics of insular subregions, SVM models were optimized to differentiate FBTCS+ from FBTCS- patients with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.735; and to distinguish left-sided from right-sided epilepsy patients with an AUC of 0.871.

CONCLUSION

Our results supported brain network abnormalities related to FBTCS and highlighted the value of insula, particularly its subregions, in identifying FBTCS+ patients and predicting lateralization at the individual level.