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12 Year old daughter Arnold Chiari Malformation

Hi...my daughter had an MRI last July 2013 because she gets a lot of headaches.  I never heard any results from it when I called the office to check so we just forgot about it.  Her headaches have not gotten any better and when we moved to a new city we changed doctors.  Our new doctor told us that she has Arnold Chiari Malformation Type 1.  

We were so surprised because no one ever contacted me with the results.  I have been researching the internet to find out more about it.  We have an appointment in 2 weeks with the Pediatrician that initially ordered the MRI back in July.  

I was given a copy of the report and below are the findings reported:

There is not restricted diffusion.  There is limited inferior cerebellar tonsillar ectopia (7mm).  Ventricles are unremarkable and there is no hemorrhage, mass, or edema.  There is mild adenoid hypertrophy.

PLEASE explain to me what exactly this means???

Thank you so much
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7659759 tn?1394402943
Welcome to my world. I just reviewed my file from 2006...9 years ago and duscoveted findings of Chiari Malformation. I was never told about it either. Ive been going crazy over symptoms(ask Selma!) I havnt had an app yet to discuss it to rule out anything else...
Hang in there. This is a good place to be. Selma 8s very patient with franic newcomers (I would know!)
Helpful - 0
620923 tn?1452915648
COMMUNITY LEADER

  Hi and welcome to the Chiari forum.

Many Drs consider Chiari an incidental finding and feel it will not cause symptoms....however, there are far too many of us with this DX and many symptoms...

I am not sure what the findings from the report mean, but the herniation is 7 mm's which is most likely only one side...and who knows how far the other one is...There are 2 tonsils and the measurement is usually the longer of the 2.

There is more testing that need to be done, a CINE MRI and MRI's of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine to rule out other related issues...

With Children it is important to rule out sleep apnea....as many with Chiari can develop this.
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