Epileptogenic Tubers Are Associated with Increased Kurtosis of Susceptibility Values: A Combined Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping and Stereoelectroencephalography Pilot Study

Output of GEE models. A, The 2 × 2 tables illustrate the sensitivity and specificity of the developed models to identify ictal and interictal tubers in the implanted tubers B, Violin plots of the kurtosis of the QSM histograms across implanted and nonimplanted tubers show higher kurtosis in the SEEG-identified and model-predicted ictal and interictal tubers, albeit with a degree of overlap. C, Violin plots of the median QSM values across implanted and nonimplanted tubers show higher kurtosis in the SEEG-identified and model-predicted ictal and interictal tubers, showing no difference between groups.

Association between model-predicted unresected tubers and postoperative Engel outcomes. There was no significant correlation between outcome and the total number of unresected ictal and interictal tubers predicted by the model (ictal regression coefficient = 0.42, R2 = 0.23, P = .16; interictal regression coefficient = 0.10, R2 = 0.003, P = .88). Note that for this analysis, 2 patients who did not undergo subsequent surgical intervention were classified as Engel class IV, and the Engel class was considered a linear variable.