Diagnose & Treat Thoracic Arachnoid Cyst

It appears my 17 year old daughter might have an spinal arachnoid cyst at T2 -T8. Two out of the three neurosurgeons that looked at the MRI thought there might be an arachnoid cyst but it wasn't very clear, and they recommended another MRI to confirm.

From the first MRI, it looks like the thoracic spinal cord is pushed towards the chest, and there appears to be a faint fuzzy material posterior to the thoracic spinal cord.

The first MRI was done with a 1.5 Tesla MRI with no contrast. The second MRI we have scheduled will also be done with with a 1.5 Tesla MRI, but this time it will be done with contrast. My question is would this second MRI be enough to clearly see if it is an arachnoid cyst? Or should we try to get a 3 Tesla MRI instead to better see the arachnoid cyst? Are there any other tests recommended?

After ruling out numerous other causes for my daughter's symptoms, we do suspect that the spinal arachnoid cyst could be the cause of her symptoms, which include:
- lower body weakness (not able to walk on her own about 80% of the time) - this has progressed over the last 4 years
- severe low back and pelvic pain
- sudden severe pains in her legs (probably radicular pain)
- noncardiac chest pain and breathing difficulty
- slight scoliosis

Do you have a neurosurgeon experienced with the diagnosis and treatment of spinal Arachnoid Cysts? Could this neurosurgeon give us a preliminary assessment of the MRI disc? We are looking for the best NS and we are willing to travel for treatment.

Thank You

[Abhijeet Ghosh]

Dear Friend,
Well you are right. We will have to go for a 3 Tesla scan as well as a contrast.
With these many signs ans symptoms, we are sure that these is some problem at the spine level. Hence we should not take any chances in order to prolong the diagnosis.
Once the diagnosis is done, then only the treatment can be thought about.
Hence please got it done soon.
As far as recommending a Neuro-surgeon, i will not be able to help you as i stay in india and have no idea about your country.

I hope that any good premier institute on your area should suffice. Also while opting for a good surgeon, do take into consideration his availability, if required.

Feel free to discuss more.
Regards...