Interictal functional ultrasound imaging in human epilepsy resection and responsive neurostimulation surgery
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K. A. Agyeman, D. Lee, B. P. Lee, R. J. McGinn, A. Abedi, J. Russin et al. · DOI: 10.64898/2026.10.15.26365563 · Summary page
Why cover this story this week?
Listening between seizures with ultrasound
Locating the source of epileptic seizures can require invasive monitoring and waiting for seizures to occur. In a clinical preprint, researchers instead used functional ultrasound directly on exposed cortex during surgery in nine patients with drug-resistant focal epilepsy. They developed six markers of interictal activity—the activity between seizures—from ultrasound measurements of blood-flow dynamics. These markers distinguished seizure-onset cortex from surrounding tissue and changed in the surrounding cortex after resection.
Responsive neurostimulation also altered the measurements, with effects depending on the stimulation paradigm. Despite their very different mechanisms, stimulation and resection produced changes in the same direction across five of the six markers. That convergence makes ultrasound interesting as a complementary readout of treatment-associated brain responses. It does not yet establish that these hemodynamic markers can independently locate a seizure source or predict clinical benefit; the immediate advance is feasibility during an operation.
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