CAN A BONE ISLAND BE THE CAUSE OF MY BACK PAIN?

I'm 37 yrs old and recently I had a complete MRI of my spine because I had an intolerable pain on my waist and neck, (most of the time waking recently just become a very painfull activity)tingled sensation and/or numbness of my extemities, acute bursitiis and tendinitis on my left rotator cuff (I even had a small rotator cuff fracture i didn't know about), bursitis on my 2 arms, almost permanent back and neck muscular spams, costhocondritis, migraines, and my vision changed in less than a yr. (blurry). The findings were as follows: spondylosis and desiccation on the L2-L3 and L4-L5, an herniated disk with indentation of the dural sac on C5-C6; sacral dural cyst and sclerotic lesion on T6, probably bening.
I had a maternal grandfather with MS. Should i be worried? The back MRI can rule our or not MS or RA? I need peace of mind!!!!!

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there. MRI alone cannot diagnose RA and you need to test for RA rheumatoid factor. The cervical and lumbar disc changes cannot account for all the symptoms. Your doctor will need to investigate you for multiple sclerosis where the disease phase is characterized by active phase and remissions. It has multiple symptoms and signs and is a diagnosis of exclusion. The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are loss of balance, muscle spasms, numbness in any area, problems with walking and coordination, tremors in one or more arms and legs. Bowel and bladder symptoms include frequency of micturition, urine leakage, eye symptoms like double vision uncontrollable rapid eye movements, facial pain, painful muscle spasms, tingling, burning in arms or legs, depression, dizziness, hearing loss, fatigue etc. The treatment is essentially limited to symptomatic therapy so the course of action would not change much whether MS has been diagnosed or not. Apart from clinical neurological examination, MRI shows MS as paler areas of demyelination, two different episodes of demyelination separated by one month in at least two different brain locations. Spinal tap is done and CSF electrophoresis reveals oligoclonal bands suggestive of immune activity, which is suggestive but not diagnostic of MS. Demyelinating neurons, transmit nerve signals slower than non-demyelinated ones and can be detected with EP tests. These are visual evoked potentials, brain stem auditory evoked response, and somatosensory evoked potential. Slower nerve responses in any one of these is not confirmatory of MS but can be used to complement diagnosis along with a neurological examination, medical history and an MRI in addition, a spinal tap. Therefore, it would be prudent to consult your neurologist with these concerns. Hope this helps. Take care.