bilateral mastoid mucosal disease

[dstout]

My son has severe autism with severe sensory issues with light and sound. He can't even get through the day without his ear muffs anymore.  During Nov. and Dec. 2008 he was in more pain than usual that included horrible pain, inlcuding almost daily migraine headaches(he's non-verbal, but it's what it looked like) He'd turn the lights out and just cry under his weighted blanket.  Sometimes digging at his eyes and many times biting himself or hitting himself in the head. We ruled out many things. We went to a nuerologist and they said results were normal. I requested a copy of the report and it says,
Impression: "Bilateral mastoid mucosal disease. Otherwise, normal MRI of the brain."
What's up with that? They just said "normal" and never mentioned the bilateral...  
Can anyone explain what that means?
I beleive they should have told me exactly what they put in the report, luckily I requested a copy.  
The neurologist proceeded to send us home again, suggesting antipsychotics for my child.
I know it's pain related and may be bilateral mastoid mucosal disease is not that big of a deal for typical children, but my son is still suffering from something.
So what is bilateral...?
What should I do next?
Sorry for the rant. I just hate to see my son suffer almost everyday of his life. He rarely feels comfortable in his own skin and has always had issues with his head (banging it against walls at 2 yo, sliding his forehead against wood floors 3 yo, hitting himself in the head, and covers his ears constantly and has to cover his eyes from the light.
DStout

[DrNoopurMD]

Hi,

Mucosal disease of the mastoid is caused by bacterial infection of the mastoid air cells. The symptoms usually include ear discharge, swelling and redness behind the ears, fever and headaches. Bilateral means that the disease involves mastoid air cells on both the sides. If your son does not have above mentioned symptoms chances are that the mastoid air cell disease is very mild.
Still I would suggest you to seek consultation with an ENT specialist and take the copy of the report with you.
Let us know if you have any more questions. Take care!

[tomsant]

MRI is done primarily for the brain, and the findings in mastoid are incidental.

If the ENT finds ears normal, there is nothing to worry about the 'mucosal disease' in the mastoid. (Bilateral = both sides, unilateral = one side)

Mucosa is the lining of the insides of our body. (Like that in the nose or mouth) Mastoid is the bone behind the ear, and contains air cells. The air cells are continuous with the middle ear space; middle ear is the air-space beneath the ear drum. The middle ear is connected to the back of the nose through a tube called Eustachian tube. All these spaces are lined by mucous membrane (mucosa). And you can appreciate how a head-cold can lead to infection in the ear.

After CT and MRI scans became common, we find a lot of innocent mastoids being labeled to have infection (mastoiditis) in reports on the scan. It is a comment by the radiologist on black and white shadows seen in the scan, and we tend to ignore it if everything is normal in clinical examination.

As your child is non-verbal, and he bangs his ears, forehead... visit an ENT specialist. Let him look into the crevices of head and neck and see if there is any reason there for such pains.

Hope this helps.

Best rgds,

Dr.Thomas Antony