Professional background

Professor Beate Diehl is a consultant neurologist, clinical neurophysiologist and clinical senior lecturer. She was elected FRCP in 2011.

Professor Diehl graduated from the Ruprecht-Karls-University Medical School in Heidelberg and pursued her neurology training at the Universities of Mainz and Muenster in Germany. She obtained subspecialty training in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland USA. Subsequently, she also qualified as a neurologist in the USA and is a Diplomat of the American Board of Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology. She held a faculty position at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation Epilepsy Centre from 2003 until 2008 when she joined the National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Based at the Sir Jules Thorn telemetry Unit, she focuses on the diagnostic evaluation of people with epilepsy who do not respond to medical treatment, to establish whether they may be candidates for epilepsy surgery. This includes patients who require intracranial EEG recordings to localise where in the brain seizures start, and to map cortical functions.

Research interests

Some of Professor Diehl’s research interests include novel imaging techniques and advanced neurophysiological methods to better delineate the epileptogenic zone, and correlating higher cortical functions as investigated with direct electrical brain stimulation and neuropsychology with imaging modalities. Furthermore, she investigates what may put people with epilepsy at risk for Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP).

Publications

  • Wandschneider, B., Koepp, M., Scott, C., Micallef, C., Balestrini, S., Sisodiya, S. M.,  Diehl, B. (2015). Structural imaging biomarkers of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Brain : a journal of neurology, 138(Pt 10),2907-19.
  • Kovac, S., Kahane, P., & Diehl, B. (2014). Seizures induced by direct electrical cortical stimulation - Mechanisms and clinical considerations Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology.Perumal, M. B., Chinnasami, S., Shah, A., Rodionov, R., Maglajlija, V., Miserocchi, A., Diehl, B. (2014). Epileptic kinetopsia localizes to superior parietal lobule and intraparietal sulcus.. Neurology. 83(8):768-70.
  • Kovac, S., Chaudhary, U. J., Rodionov, R., Mantoan, L., Scott, C. A., Lemieux, L., Diehl, B. (2014). Ictal EEG source imaging in frontal lobe epilepsy leads to improved lateralization compared with visual analysis.. J Clin Neurophysiol, 31(1), 10-20.
  • Kovac, S., Scott, C. A., Maglajlija, V., Toms, N., Rodionov, R., Miserocchi, A.,  Diehl, B. (2013). Comparison of bipolar versus monopolar extraoperative electrical cortical stimulation mapping in patients with focal epilepsy.. Clin Neurophysiol. 125:667-74.
  • Kovac, S., Parashkev, N., Rodionov, R., Scott, C., McEvoy, A., Toms, N., Diehl, B. (2012). Neck atonia with a focal stimulation-induced seizure arising from the SMA: pathophysiological considerations. Epilepsy Behav. 24(4):503-6.
  • Busch, R. M., Frazier, T., Chapin, J. S., Hamrahian, A. H., Diehl, B., Alexopoulos, A., Najm, I. M. (2012). Role of cortisol in mood and memory in patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy.. Neurology, 78(14), 1064-1068.
  • Kovac, S., Scott, C. A., Maglajlija, V., Rodionov, R., McEvoy, A. W., & Diehl, B. (2011). Extraoperative electrical cortical stimulation: characteristics of motor responses and correlation with precentral gyrus.. J Clin Neurophysiol, 28(6), 618-624.
  • O'Dwyer, R., Wehner, T., LaPresto, E., Ping, L., Tkach, J., Noachtar, S., Diehl, B. (2010). Differences in corpus callosum volume and diffusivity between temporal and frontal lobe epilepsy.. Epilepsy Behav, 19(3), 376-382.
  • Kovac, S., Scott, C., Rugg-Gunn, F., Miserocchi, A., Vollmar, C., Rodionov, R., Diehl, B. (2010). Unusual cortical stimulation findings: connectivity between primary motor and supplementary motor areas.. Epilepsy Behav, 19(4), 639-642.
  • Diehl, B., Tkach, J., Piao, Z., Ruggieri, P., LaPresto, E., Liu, P.,  Najm, I. (2010). Diffusion tensor imaging in patients with focal epilepsy due to cortical dysplasia in the temporo-occipital region: Electro-clinico-pathological correlations. Epilepsy Res, 90(3), 178-187.
  • Diehl, B., Piao, Z., Tkach, J., Busch, R. M., LaPresto, E., Najm, I., Luders, H. (2010). Cortical stimulation for language mapping in focal epilepsy: Correlations with tractography of the arcuate fasciculus. Epilepsia, 51(4), 639-646. doi:10.1111/j.1528-1167.2009.02421.x