Pathology in hippocampus of drug-resistant TLE
Hippocampal tissues were available in seven patients with drug-resistant TLE, four in the AC group, and three in the NC group. The mean disease course was 13 years from seizure onset (5–23 years) in the NC group and 17 years (17–23 years) in the AC group. There were no significant differences in disease course, sex, or age. All patients underwent MMSE (Table 2). The mean MMSE score was 28 (28–29) in the AC group and 20 (17–23) in the NC group. Immunofluorescence revealed Aβ and p-tau deposits in both the NC and AC groups (Figure 4A and B). Three sampled regions (×200) were randomly selected from the hippocampus of each patient. The percentage of each sampled area with positive Aβ and p-Tau immunofluorescence was calculated using a quantitative analysis (Table 2). The mean percentage of Aβ in the sampled regions was 0.13% (0.03%–0.26%) in the NC group and 0.26% (0.01%–0.67%) in the AC group. The mean p-Tau load was 0.61% (0.25%–1.25%) in the NC group and 1.20% (0.58%–2.33%) in the AC group. As shown in Table 2 and Figure 4C, there was a significant difference in the severity of Aβ and p-Tau load between the NC and AC groups (Aβ: p NC-AC = 0.034; p-Tau: p NC-AC = 0.012).