out of lurkdom with mri report, MS?

[momtolava]

Hello all! I have been lurking here the past month or so, as I have had some ms like symptoms. You seem like such a wonderful group...

About 6 weeks ago I had a tingle on my lip that felt like a cold sore coming on. After a week and no cold sore I thought it was strange. It went away and then tingling began other places. Random places. Ears, face, shins, I've felt a couple in the trunk and had and episode of numbness on my R arm. The worst place is my scalp- the right side will go completely tingly and slightly numb...This has happened 10 times or so. I am not too fatigued, considering I have 4 children 6 and under. The symptoms began about 5 weeks after delivery of my 4th child. I have some dizziness and tinnitus. So neurology exam was proclaimed "normal" although I'm not sure how thorough, it took 15-20 min. Had an MRI this week and have the report in hand, neurologist has said over the phone that it does not confirm MS...but we meet in person next week to discuss further.

Here are some things the report metions.

No enhancing lesion is seen in the brain.

Is seen on FLAIR sequences is a subtle focus of bright signal within the left corona radiata approximately 6-7 mm.

There may be a 5-6 mm focus of bright signal at the vertex of the left posterior frontal lobe level of the precentral gyrus.

Within the deep white matter posterior to the trigone  of the left occipital lobe hyperintense lesion is seen measuring about 4-5 mm. The similar sized lesion is noted posterior to the left occipital horn. None of these lesions show enhancement. These signal hyperintensities are relatively nonspecific in appearance and do not fulfill diagnostic criteria fo rdefinite demyelinization from ms by MRI.

Impression: Nonspecific T2 signal hyperintensities within hte white matter as described. These do not fulfill McDonald's criteria for ms by MRI at this time. No enhancement of restricted diffusion is seen.


this was on a T1.5 machine. I have to wonder if it had been a new machine if it would have picked up more abnormalities. My bloodwork came back normal except an elevated ANA the SSA auto-antibody was less than 8. They say it could be sjorgens. I have no symptoms of that. Any thoughts?

I am getting a western blott done tomorrow. Could lymes cause lesions on an MRI?

I know you are not radiologist, but wondering if anyone has any insight. Waiting for my appt's is torture!

Thanks, Vanessa

[twopack]

Radiologists are physicians.  Their education includes four years of college, four years of medical school and then five years of residency.  It is possible to shave a couple years off of that in a combo undergraduate/medical school program but that's still a minimum of eleven years education and hands on training.

Me, I love to look at the things but don't understand much until the doc points it all out.

Glad you came out of the shadows Vanessa.  It's good to meet you.  I wish we could be more helpful with specifics.  We sure will stand by you as most of us remember all too well how slow time moves when unanswered questions are on the table.

If you have been reading here very long, you probably already know that correct diagnosis is a tricky process.  I hope your neuro will look at the MRI images himself and review them with you along with all your other test results.  The radiologist may know physics and images.  Only the neuro knows you.

Mary

[jensequitur]

Really hard to say - I don't know my brain anatomy all that well, and it's best to look at the MRI results with the DICOM viewer.  The radiologist has ways of tracking it up and down and sideways.

Quite often it's best to leave that sort of thing up to the radiologist.  I looked it up - after the 4-year degree, they have three or four more years of radiology training to go through.  So their job is NOT easy.

[momtolava]

thank you, are my lesions vascular? how can you tell?

[jensequitur]

Lyme can cause lesions, but they're different from MS lesions.  MS lesions tend to follow vascular spaces.  

Perhaps you can suggest to the neurologist that a 3T MRI will be a better diagnostic tool.  With that much lesion activity on a 1.5, I'll bet you have plenty more that were missed.