Brain MRI pics. Are these lesions?

[johnnymutt]

Ok, now I'm not gonna bother you all with what's this and that, but what's this, hehe. Here's my most recent MRI. I was wondering and thinking that these were lesions. Any input, :)

thanks
John

[Lulu54]

Audrey - the referenced sites for Johnny were meant to give him something new to read and peruse.  Of course we are never going to find lesions on a website that match what we have on our own pics.  Actually he is past making him self crazy with this, it is just a cruddy weather day here in Ohio and a good diversion to spend the afternoon.

Silkcut - the symetrical nature of those two UBO's are definitely curious.  I hope JM asks the neuro about these. I would sure like to know what the explanation is, and I don't think its MS.  But again, I am no expert.

As for the radiologist reports -sometimes they are good, other times they are pretty useless.  My radiology reports from the MS clinic are very basic, because they know the neuro reads the films himself.  My first MRI, before they were thinking MS was in the equation, was very detailed and the best report I have had as far as being detailed.

be well, Lu

[silkcut]

Hi John

I've hopped over from Neuro Limboland and caught your subject line.

Nothing I like better than perusing the odd MRI or two!! Over the last six months I've given myself an intensive course on brain scans. Not that that means anything, of course.

Lu's right, it's not possible to diagnose and I'm certainly not qualified. But you really need to see the whole set in order to see where the suspect markings begin and end. A look at the sagittal plane would also be very useful for the same reason. Also, what Tesla strength is this? (No contrast was used?)

But I looked at your pix and wondered at the near perfect symmetry. Then I noticed the head collar echo in there at each side. I'm wondering if these suspect marks are actually connected with that? (Would be a relief if so, wouldn't it!) What do the sagittal views look like?

For now, I'd go with Audrey's wise suggestion! Get the radiologist's report and then come back to it.

I'm interested to find out what they say about these marks, if anything.

best wishes
sammxx

[Audrey_M]

John

When is your appointment with the doctor? I ask, because if you have time, go pick up the radiologist report if you have not already done so. This will help guide you; you can read what the radiologist wrote and try (as much as a layperson can) to correlate his/her findings with the images. LuLu guided you to one website and if you check it out, you won't find images that match the ones that you posted. I don't recommend driving yourself crazy looking at these your disk by yourself or doing web searches trying to pin down what you think you might be seeing to a possible cause. You can put a huge twist in your knickers that way!

Lesion is such a broad term and basically means abnormality. To borrow from WebMD "While the definition sounds simple, understanding brain lesions can be complicated. That's because there are many types of brain lesions. They can range from small to large, from few to many..."  Some can be relatively harmless while others are related to disease or brain injury.

Right now it seems you only have half the pieces of the puzzle (the disk), without the knowing what the finished puzzle should look like (the radiologists report).

Good luck and please try to enjoy the weekend without spending too much time on this with too little information.

[Lulu54]

When the wife isn't looking, check out these pictures on the web  - and no, it is not an elicit site.  184 page atlas of MS lesions.  Download the pdf for easier viewing.  Its a cruddy weather day here,  so you might as well stay in and enrich your brain!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/8817608/MRI-Atlas-of-MS-Lesions

[johnnymutt]

Sorry, I didn't want anyone to diagnose, I was just sitting at the house bored today, and believe my, I'm though the "driving myself crazy" routine with these pics, lol. I spent probably 4 days doing nothing but researching, and comparing. I finally came to the conclusion that you have to be either very well trained, or very crazy to know exactly what you're looking at on an MRI, haha. Thanks for the link Lulu, that's a site I haven't seen yet. I'm still determining if I'm being sarcastic or not about the "thanks", simply because now I'm gonna be stuck on that darn site until my wife shuts me down, lol.

Seriously thanks
John

[Lulu54]

We don't do MRI pics very well because it takes years of study to get the nuances of these shots.  That said, the pic marked A is interesting because the spots you marked are fairly symmetrical, which isn't how MS lesions will normally appear.

I only know my lesionsbecause of the radiologists' reports and reviewing my films with my neuro.  You might ask your doc to go over them with you.


If you really want to drive yourself crazy with this - check out this website which is one of my MRI favs -

http://www.radiologyassistant.nl/en/4556dea65db62#p4594f74ccbf19

be well, Lu