The Cincinnati Epilepsy Center at University Hospital's Neuroscience Institute is one of a handful of centers in the world using the latest in brain-imaging to pinpoint where seizures originate in the brain, and at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, researchers are conducting the largest-ever pediatric epilepsy drug study.

Nationally, more than 2 million Americans have epilepsy, and two to three out of a hundred people have epilepsy or another seizure disorder, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.

At the Cincinnati Epilepsy Center, Dr. Jerzy Szaflarski is studying the use of EEG-triggered functional MRI in epilepsy treatment.

The technique marries two forms of technology - the EEG (electroencephalogram), which records electrical activity in the brain, and functional magnetic resonance imaging, which provides high-resolution images of structures within the brain and other organs.

Szaflarski and his colleagues use the technique to track the electrical glitches that precede seizures through the brain. In the short term, the technique will allow neurosurgeons to more precisely remove or sever the connections within the brain that cause seizures. In the long term, EEG-triggered functional MRI could spur new drug development, says Dr. John Stern, a neurologist at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.

E-mail pofarrell@enquirer.com