Available

Project reference

2024_P16_Wagstyl_Sparks

Start date

June or October 2025

First Academic supervisor

Dr Konrad Wagstyl

Second Academic supervisor

Dr Rachel Sparks

First Clinical supervisor

Dr Sophie Alder

4

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AI tools for optimised planning and evaluation of epilepsy surgery

The aim of this project is to create AI tools to improve the evaluation and planning of epilepsy surgery. Epilepsy is drug-resistant in around 1/3 of patients. For those whose epilepsy is driven by a focal lesion, surgical resection can be curative, but seizure freedom is only achieved in around 70%. It is not fully understood what determines outcome, but studies have shown that clinical variables such as duration of epilepsy, the underlying histopathology and importantly, complete resection of the lesion are significant factors. This PhD project will aim to: 1) Create open source tools for precise mapping of resection cavities using a large cohort of post-operative MRI scans; 2) Create tools for predicting the likelihood of post-surgical seizure freedom, through the integration of post-surgical resection masks, pre-operative imaging abnormalities and clinical information; and 3) Integrate planned resection strategies into EpiNav and Stealth, to enable intraoperative guidance of optimised resection strategies.