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. 2021 Apr 23:2:11.
doi: 10.17879/freeneuropathology-2021-3324. eCollection 2021 Jan.

Taylor's focal cortical dysplasia revisited: History, original specimens and impact

Burkhard S Kasper  1
Affiliations

Taylor's focal cortical dysplasia revisited: History, original specimens and impact

Burkhard S Kasper. Free Neuropathol. .

Abstract

50 years ago back in 1971, David C. Taylor and colleagues from England reported on a small series of surgical epilepsy cases proposing a new type of tissue lesion as a cause of difficult-to-treat focal epilepsy: a localized malformation of cerebral cortex. The lesion is now known as focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) Type II or Taylor's cortical dysplasia. FCD II is not rare, and today is a frequent finding in neurosurgical epilepsy specimens. Medical progress has been achieved in that the majority of FCD II is diagnosed non-invasively by magnetic resonance imaging today. Detailed studies on FCD revealed that the lesion belongs to a spectrum of mTOR-o-pathies, thereby confirming the authors´ initial hypothesis of a relationship to tuberous sclerosis. Here, selected original materials from Taylor´s series are presented as virtual slides, supplemented by original clinical records, in order to give a first-hand impression of this milestone finding in neuropathology of epilepsy.

Keywords: Dysplasia; Epilepsy; FCD; History; Taylor.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Original (historical) slides from Taylors series (Nissl, HE) and new slides cut from the original paraffin blocks (EvG, GFAP, vimentin, nestin). Clicking into the respective picture will lead you to the full virtual slide.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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