Central Nervous System Infection-Related Isolated Hippocampal Atrophy as Another Subtype of Medial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with Hippocampal Atrophy: A Comparison to Conventional Medial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with Hippocampal Atrophy

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Hippocampal atrophy (HA) resulting from a central nervous system (CNS) infection might be a relevant lesion responsible for the clinical characteristics of medial temporal lobe epilepsy. METHODS: The clinical characteristics of 54 patients with CNS infection-related medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) with isolated HA (CNS infection group) and 155 patients with conventional MTLE with HA (conventional group) were compared retrospectively. CNS infection alone and bilateral involvement of the HA were analyzed as prognostic factors, in addition to the detailed clinical characteristics, such as limbic aura and the presence and proportion of each type of automatism, between the two groups, and both medical and surgical prognoses were separately considered. A logistic regression analysis was performed. RESULTS: A statistical analysis including all clinical factors, including CNS infection with bilateral HA, did not reveal significant differences between the two groups. An analysis comparing the prognosis of the two groups based on good or poor prognosis among patients who received medical treatment and good or poor outcomes among patients who received surgical treatment did not produce significant differences. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to bilateral HA, CNS infection alone was not a poor prognostic factor for the CNS infection-related epilepsy with HA group compared with the conventional MTLE with HA group. Based on these negative results, HA is a plausible and relevant lesion with similar clinical characteristics to HA in patients with conventional MTLE. Therefore, CNS infection-related MTLE with isolated HA might represent another subtype of MTLE with HA with a different etiology.