cerebritis

Hello, I was diagnosed with cerebritis but I have a clear mri.I also have been diagnosed with lupus and fibro. I was told that this does not show on a mri a lot of times. Is this true? Also what could make a sed rate go as high as 90. My sed-rate was 90 and I was experiencing severe headaches, blurred vision, facial weakness, and rapid heart beat. What does this sound like to you? Also give you give me some information on the ssa(anti-ro antibody) I don't have sjrogeens syndrome what else could cause me to have an high positive ro antibody. Thanks for answering all these questions.

[CCF neuro MD MM]

I sounds as thought you need to direct some your questions to a rheumatologist rather than a neurologist since this seems to be the primary focus of your problems. I will be happy to address the neurological aspects of the problem however.
Fibromyalgia never shows changes on MRI and frequently nothing is seen in lupus, particularly if there are no focal neurological defecits.
Any rheumatologicl disorder, chronic infection or inflammation can cause a high sed rate. This finding is not caused by primary neurological diseases so the whole spectrum of rheumatological disorders including myositis, dermatomyositis, temporal arteritis should be reviewed.
Facial weakness especially if it is exacerbated by chewing is associated with temporal or cranial arteritis.
SSA antibody is associated with lupus but can also be seen in a non-specific manner in any of the rheumatological disorders, by itself it does not prove any diagnosis but should be evaluated in the context of the whole range of laboratory, radiological and clinical findings.

[Donna624]

A related discussion, prognosis for cerebritis was started.