Men may be more vulnerable to seizure-associated brain damage

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Repetitive seizures may be associated with progressive neuronal damage measurable by quantitative MRI. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether gender is a risk factor for this damage. METHODS: Sixty patients with refractory temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) (28 men, 32 women) and 54 healthy controls (28 men, 26 women) were compared by quantitative MRI methods. RESULTS: Male patients had ipsilateral hemicranial volume loss of 12% (CI 8% to 16%) and contralateral volume loss of 7% (CI:3% to 11%) compared with male controls (p < or =0.004, analysis of variance). Female patients were 4% (CI:0.3% to 8%, p = 0.04) smaller than controls in the ipsilateral hemicranium, and not different contralater..