The 7 Tesla Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Study

About the 7-TLE study

7-TLE piriform cortex

  • The 7-Tesla Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (7-TLE) Study is a prospective, case-control neuroimaging study of both children and adults with TLE being considered for epilepsy surgery.
  • The 7-TLE Study utilises the ability of the high-field, 7-Tesla MRI scanner at St Thomas’ Hospital (find more details here) to obtain high-resolution data of small structures (such as the piriform cortex) in the temporal lobe.
  • The 7-TLE Study will primarily investigate the connectivity of the piriform cortex and mesial temporal lobe structures by comparing functional MRI measures between patients with TLE and healthy participants.

Design

7-TLE Porject Study Design

  • Participants  are invited to attend a single visit during which they will have a single 7-Tesla MRI scan.
  • We are performing high-resolution functional and diffusion MRI to investigate the brain connectivity of temporal lobe structures.
  • We are also developing the use of electroencephalography (EEG) to run simultaneously with fMRI acquisition

Objectives

7-TLE study aims

Inclusion criteria for patients

Patients must have all of the following crietria for enrolment:

  • Age 5 to 65 years at study enrolement
  • Suspected to have focal TLE and referred to their respective epilepsy surgery multidisciplinary team (MDTs) 
  • Considered for epilepsy surgery 

Inclusion criteria for healthy participants

Healthy participants must be:
•    Aged between 5 – 65 years at study enrolment 

Exclusion criteria for all participants

•    Contraindications to MRI scanning 
•    Previous inability to intolerance to MRI scan without sedation or general anaesthetic 
•    Younger than 5 years or older than 65 years of age 

Recruitment target

•    40 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy
•    30 healthy participants

Recruiting sites

•    Guys’ and St Thomas’ Hospital
•    Great Ormond Street Hospital
•    The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

Sponsor and oversight:

The 7-TLE Study is Sponsored by the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

The 7-TLE Team

The study team and collaborators:

•    Prof Torsten Baldeweg (UCL GOS ICH)
•    Dr David Carmichael (KCL)
•    Mr Martin Tisdall (GOSH)
•    Mr Rory Piper(UCL GOS ICH)
•    Ms Phillipa Bridgen (KCL/GSTT)
•    Dr Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh (KCL)
•    Prof John Duncan (NHNN)
•    Prof Alexander Hammers (GSTT)
•    Dr Shan-Shan Tang (Evelina)
•    Dr Ata Siddiqui (GSTT/Evelina)
•    Dr Kish Mankad (GOSH)

Contact

Please reach out to find out more: Rory.Piper.20@ucl.ac.uk

Funding

The 7-TLE Study is funded by the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity

GOSH Charity logo