atrophy

[T.O.fire]

Good morning all.
Does anyone know what " minimal diffse atrophy means"?

[Quixotic1]

The person who stole your memory is the same one who sneakks into your car at night and turns the volume of the radio way up.  I just know it! Q

[T-lynn]

If anyone finds the rest of my brain,would they send it home.(LOL)I know somedays its shrinking even more,cause simple things have become harder and I know someone stole my memory.

[Quixotic1]

No problem!  And while you're looking for your brain, would you tell us if you find any of ours???

And, of course, I'll be glad to give  you my thoughts on your situation.  I'll try to do it tonight!  Quix

[risnerrose]

Oh no . . . I'm not having cognitive issues LOL.  I reread the post and realized that I had gotten totally confused here.  Sorry about "butting in".  Surely I'll get the hang of this forum stuff soon..??..??

[risnerrose]

Thank you for that very quick reply.  I'll not bother with reposting it.  

[risnerrose]

Sorry, I meant to make that a separate post.  I'll repeat it as a new post.  I'm way to new at this.

[T.O.fire]

Yes  it does, you make sense the radiologest does't

[risnerrose]

I may be simplifying this too much, but here goes.  If I have symptoms and more than two lesions do I have MS?  

[Quixotic1]

If the comment about atrophy was on the brain MRI, it refers to the appareant loss of brain volume.  The radiologist would have seen increased space around the brain, filled with CSF.  Also the brain has deep folds called sulci and in atrophy these folds will look widened.

In the context of MS, atrophy may be caused by the "dropping out" of old, dead areas that demyelinated, carred and then were reabsorbed.  When these happen, they can often be seen as "black holes" where a lesion once was.  If enough lesions become black holes, the brain willcontract/collapse into these areas and the total volume will be sen as reduced.  With all the black holes it was already reduced, but does not become apparent until the whole of the brain tissue closes in.  Does this make sense?

T-lynn's diagnosis was made partially from this finding.

Quix

[T.O.fire]

Thanks, it's from my most recent MRI, it's my third and worst explained ever, my Dr. even said that it's a bad expaination of the images.

[oncetri]

Alright, I'm not a doctor, but I'll take a stab at this one.  I have heard this before, that's why I can answer.

It means that some atrophy of the muscles and/or organs (depending on what they are looking at) is seen in the image, but it is not localized to a specific region.  It is found in multiple areas (diffuse).  Minimal indicates that it is noticed, but not necessarily a significant find, aka the cause of the symptoms.  I would try for a better response from Quix, our resident expert.  Hope this helps in the mean-time.