brain lesions

[larandsandy]

Hi, can you tell me the difference in brain lesions from MS and lesions from vascular migraines?  I was diagnosed with multiple brain lesions seen with T2.  It said that they were not ovoid in shape or tranversely oriented.  Can you tell me what this means?  I have suffered with migraines for 34 years.  I have both aura and non-aura migraines.  Could these lesions be related to the migraines?  

[10toomany]

Hi, I have been on and off this board for years. Recently I went to a neuro who I saw 8 years ago when she told me that I have  benign MS.  When she looked at my recent mri she said that she sees small vessel lesions and demyelinating lesions.  This makes a lot of sense.  I had 2 MRIs by another neuro and read by 2 different radiologists; one said demyelinating, the other said small vessel disease.  I am at a point in my life,  age 65,  that unless I fall on my head and crack open my skull I'm not going to a neuro.  The older you are, the more they blow you off.  I now fall backwards and have a pretty bad speech problem and that is how things will stay until I crack my head.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hi.

Simply put, MRI lesions due migraine are tiny areas of white matter hyperintensities. These lesions are smaller than those in MS. MS lesions are mostly in the deep white matter and are periventricular. The Migraine lesions can be periventricular and at other areas also.

When the report says that the lesions are not ovoid or transverse, they are trying to say that it is probably not due to MS.

Your lesions on the MRI are either non-specific, or are associated with the chronic migraine headaches. In a few studies, it was found that around 12 to 47 % of migraine sufferers had white matter lesions on MRI, as compared to 2-14% normal individuals.

Regards