Hippocampal sclerosis (HS) is the commonest pathology in epileptic patients undergoing temporal lobe epilepsy surgery. Beside, there are an increased density of corpora amylacea (CA) founded in 6 to 63% of those cases.
Objective: verify the presence of CA and the clinical correlates of their occurrence in a consecutive series of patients undergoing temporal surgery with diagnosis of HS.
Method: We reviewed 72 hippocampus specimens from January 1997 to July 2000. Student's t test for independent, samples, ANOVA and Tukey test were performed for statistical analysis.
Results: CA were found in 35 patients (49%), whose mean epilepsy duration (28.7 years) was significantly longer than that group of patients without CA (19.5 years, p=0.001). Besides, when CA were found, duration was also significantly correlated with distribution within hippocampus: 28.7 years with diffuse distribution of CA, 15.4 with exclusively subpial and 17.4 years with distribution subpial plus perivascular (p=0.001).
Conclusion: Our findings corroborate the presence of CA in patients with HS and suggest that a longer duration of epilepsy correlate with a more distribution of CA in hippocampus.