Morphological and spectroscopic study of monozygotic twins discordant for epilepsy

了解癫痫的病因对治疗和预防至关重要。在许多癫痫患者中，病因并不明显，通常归因于出生时的事件或轻微的头部损伤。很明显，这些因素通常并不重要。越来越多的证据表明，反映发育或成熟异常的大脑结构的细微变化可能是这些癫痫的原因。这种细微的变化可以通过新的磁共振成像策略来检测。然而，由于大脑形态的个体差异，这种细微变化的意义是有争议的。同卵双胞胎的大脑形态越来越相似。因此，对只有一个双胞胎患有癫痫的同卵双胞胎进行分析，是表征显著大脑异常的有力方法。这将提供与一般人群有关的癫痫病因的新信息。

Understanding the causes of epilepsies is essential for treatment and prevention. In many people with epilepsy the cause is not obvious and is frequently attributed to events at birth or minor head injuries. It is clear that these factors are generally not important. There is increasing evidence that subtle changes in brain structure, reflecting developmental or maturational abnormalities, may be the cause of these epilepsies. Such subtle changes can be detected by novel magnetic resonance imaging strategies. However, due to individual differences of brain morphology, the significance of such subtle changes can be disputed. Monozygotic twins have an increased similarity of their brain morphology. Therefore, analysis of monozygotic twins where only one twin is affected with epilepy, is a powerful way to characterize significant brain abnormalities. This will provide novel information on the causes of epilepsy relevant to the general population.