Name of supervisor： Daisuke Hasegawa, DVM, PhD, DAiCVIM (Neurology)
Position: Professor
researchmap
KAKEN researcher number：20366793
ORCID ID：0000-0002-7554-9108
Main research theme: Epilepsy and related brain diseases in dogs and cats
Research keywords: EEG, MRI, Epilepsy surgery, Brain tumors
Lab location: Lab. Veterinary Radiology, 2nd floor, Building D
E-mail：disk-hsgw(@mark)nvlu.ac.jp
Research
Our laboratory, Veterinary Clinical Neurology, conducts neurology and neurosurgery research in companion animals (dogs and cats), in particular, basic and clinical studies of pathophysiology, diagnostic methods, treatments, and prognosis of brain diseases. The main research interest of Prof. Hasegawa is epilepsy and its surgical treatment. Epilepsy and epileptic seizures are common in all mammals and is the most frequent brain disease in small animal practice. In the clinical setting, our epilepsy research is conducted based on 1) diagnostic techniques and 2) treatments. Regarding the 1) diagnosis of epilepsy, we are investigating the identification of the epileptogenic zone (focus) using long-term video-EEG monitoring, wide-band EEG analysis, and advanced MRI sequences. Concerning 2) treatments of epilepsy, we are developing epilepsy surgery methods for dogs and cats (clinical and experimental) with drug-resistant epilepsy, which cannot be controlled by antiseizure medications. In order to perform 2) epilepsy surgery, efficient diagnostic techniques (i.e., presurgical evaluations) are extremely important, so both the investigation of the epileptogenic zone and development of surgical approaches are inseparable. Furthermore, our laboratory maintains the only family strain of spontaneous epileptic cats (feline familial temporal lobe epilepsy) in the world, and our studies using these epileptic cats attract attention from not only the veterinary field but only human medicine as a natural-occurring animal model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Other than epilepsy research, we conduct research on the diagnosis, medical, and surgical treatments of cognitive dysfunction and brain tumors in dogs and cats, which are becoming more common due to the aging population and the development of veterinary medicine.
Guidance policy for graduate students
Prof. Hasegawa: I have supervised the research of 5 graduate students to date, all of which have received their PhD. These students contributed their effort to epilepsy research, which advanced my research. In other words, the progress of my research is greatly dependent on the studies of these graduate students. In the usual pattern, the graduate student and I discuss possible research topics, and the graduate student designs the study and experimental protocol. I provide critical review and suggest corrections or modifications to the approach and the graduate student conducts the study either with me or under my supervision. The graduate student analyzes the data, presents findings at conferences, and prepares a manuscript of the results as first author (I am listed as corresponding author). In this way, I can promote the education of a graduate student to be an outstanding scientist and/or educator. If the research progresses well and the graduate student can publish 2 or 3 papers, I will entrust them to perform original research or a more advanced study, of which they can write and publish the results of the study as first and corresponding author. In addition, I encourage and assist the graduate students to apply for scholarships (such as DC1, DC2, and PD of JSPS) or public/private grants.
Furthermore, although separate distinctly from the PhD coursework, I am a diplomate of veterinary neurology and am working at the teaching hospital as a neurologist. Thus, graduate students have access to the knowledge and skills of clinical neurology and neurosurgery.
Publications
【First-author publications by graduate students】
1.Kuwabara T, Hasegawa D, Kobayashi M, et al. Clinical magnetic resonance volumetry of the hippocampus in 58 epileptic dogs. Vet Radiol Ultrasound 51:485-490, 2010.
2.Kuwabara T, Hasegawa D, Ogawa F, et al. A familial spontaneous epileptic feline strain: a novel model of idiopathic/genetic epilepsy. Epilepsy Res 92:85-88, 2010.
3.Mizoguchi S, Haseagawa D, Kuwabara T, et al. Magnetic resonance volumetry of the hippocampus in familial spontaneous epileptic cats. Epilepsy Res 108:1940-1944, 2014.
4.Mizoguchi S, Hasegawa D, Hamamoto Y, et al. Interictal diffusion and perfusion magnetic resonance features of cats with familial spontaneous epilepsy. Am J Vet Res 78:305-310, 2017.
5.Hamamoto Y, Hasegawa D, Mizoguchi S, et al. Retrospective epidemiological study of canine epilepsy in Japan using the International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force classification 2015 (2003-2013): etiological distribution, risk factors, survival time, and lifespan. BMC Vet Res 12:248, 2016.
6.Hamamoto Y, Hasegawa D, Mizoguchi S, et al. Changes in the interictal and early postictal diffusion and perfusion magnetic resonance parameters in familial spontaneous epileptic cats. Epilepsy Res 133:76-82, 2017.
7.Wada M, Hasegawa D, Hamamoto Y, et al. Comparison among magnetic resonance imaging signs, apparent diffusion coefficient, and fractional anisotropy in dogs with a solitary intracranial meningioma or histiocytic sarcoma. Vet Radiol Ultrasound 58:422-432, 2017.
8.Yu Y, Hasegawa D, Fujiwara-Igarashi A, et al. Molecular cloning and characterization of the family of feline leucine-rich glioma-inactivated (LGI) genes, and mutational analysis in familial spontaneous epileptic cats. BMC Vet Res 13:389, 2017.
9.Yu Y, Hasegawa D, Hamamoto Y, et al. Neuropathological features of the hippocampus and amygdala in familial spontaneous epileptic cats. Am J Vet Res 79:324-332, 2018.
10.Asada R, Hamamoto Y, Yu Y, et al. Ventrolateral temporal lobectomy in normal dogs as a counterpart to human anterior temporal lobectomy: a preliminary study on the surgical procedure and complications. J Vet Med Sci 83:1513-1520, 2021.
11.Asada R, Mizuno S, Yu Y, et al. Corpus callosotomy in 3 Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dogs with drug-resistant epilepsy. Brain Sci 11:1462, 2021.
【First and Corresponding authoring by graduate students】
12.Hamamoto Y, Hasegawa D, Yu Y, et al. Statistical structural analysis of familial spontaneous epileptic cats using voxel-based morphometry. Front Vet Sci 5:172, 2018.
13.Yu Y, Hasegawa D, Chambers JK, et al. Magnetic resonance imaging and histopathological findings from a Standard Poodle with neonatal encephalopathy with seizures. Front Vet Sci 7:578936, 2020.
【Representative publications by supervisor】
14.Hasegawa D, Mizoguchi S, Kuwabara T, et al. Electroencephalographic features of familial spontaneous epileptic cats. Epilepsy Res 108:1018-1025, 2014. (JUHN AND MARY WADA Prize, Japan Epilepsy Society, 2016)
15.Hasegawa D. Diagnostic techniques to detect the epileptogenic zone: Pathophysiological and presurgical analysis of epilepsy in dogs and cats. Vet J 215:64-75, 2016 (George Fleming Prize, The Veterinary Journal 2016)
16.Hasegawa D, Saito M, Kitagawa M. Neurosurgery in canine epilepsy. Vet J 285:105852, 2022.
17.Hasegawa D, Kanazono S, Chambers JK, Uchida K. Neurosurgery in feline epilepsy, including clinicopathology of feline epilepsy syndromes. Vet J 290:105925, 2022.
