Can Test Change From Normal To Abnormal?

[slightlybroken]

This might be a stupid question..but..say you are in the beginning stages of what looks to be MS. You show signs of  a disease process going on (abnormalities on exam, nonspecific lesions of the brain)...but nothing concrete according to them. The doctors order evoke potentials (VEP, SSEP, BAER) and LP. Those test come within normal limits.

A few years pass and you are still suffering from symptoms but they are worse, and you still have no answers. Can those evoke potentials test and LP change from normal to abnormal in MS as the disease progresses or is it "set in stone", that once they are normal...they will always be normal/ if you have MS...it would be abnormal from the start whether you're in the beginning stages or not?

I know that MRIs can change over time with MS....and to me, without treatment so would all the other test but what if these test are ran before a lot of "scarring"  and damage was present?

[Wobbly]

that's a good question and I curious about an answer too?  I'm not Dx and don't have one for you...hope someone can ...

take care
wobbly
undx

[slightlybroken]

me too...thanks wobbly

[Heather3418]

In the beginning of my course with MS, myVEP, BAER and my SSEP, were normal, even though I had lesions in the brain and one in the spinal cord.  As I am told, you do not need to have "scarring" in your brain or spinal cord, just to get a abnormal report on this testing.  There does need to be damage (not necessarily scarring)  in those areas for those specified tests to be abnormal.  Normal testing does not mean that you do NOT have MS.  Later on in my course of MS, those tests did start to show some abnormalities.

I hope others will come along and offer their testing results.  

Heather

[slightlybroken]

Thanks Heather...that fits my point.

[doni54]

Hi slightlybroken,

That was a great question and one I really wanted the answer to also, as I'm about to have all these tests too.

Thanks Heather, now we know!!  And it does make sense that this could happen.  Oh, why or why does MS have to be so elusive!, with so many variables!!

doni