Neuropsychological assessment and clinical evaluation in temporal lobeepilepsy with associated cortical dysplasia

<p>Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE) is a chronic neurological disorder, often associated to cognitive deficits.Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD), frequently associated to high risk of epilepsy, can lead to abnormalitiesin cognition. The aim of this study was to explore neuropsychological performance and to identify poten-tial risk factors for cognitive impairment in TLE subjects with associated FCD. Our sample was composedby 46 TLE patients with FCD (37.76 &plusmn; 12.60 years; 29 females and 16 males) and 44 healthy controls (41.05 &plusmn; 9.74 years; 25 females and 19 males). All subjects performed a neuropsychological battery associ-ated to a measurement of depression and anxiety. Results showed a poor performance of all domainsof cognitive functioning and identified age of epilepsy onset as potential risk factor of cognitive impair-ment. These findings support the importance to focus on cognitive impairment in TLE patients with FCDto better clarify the impact of epilepsy features and FCD in therapeutic and everyday management</p>