Is this early MS?

[bloomfield15]

I have been experiencing burning sensations (feels like sunburn feeling) in my legs, feet, arms, back, and buttocks.  I have also been experiencing twitches in my body in the same areas along with others that occur randomly while i am at rest.  Some twitches are stronger than others and feels like the whole muscle is tightening which makes the region jump and others feel more like a flutter. Back in November I had similar symp. along with numbness and tingling on the right side.  I saw a neuro in early Dec. and had a thorough workup: Mri of brain and c-spine, labs no Lyme or vit. def, SSEP, VEP, and neuro exam.  All of which are normal.  The neuro put me on neurontin 400mg 3X per day to try and see if that helped.  I also take zoloft 50mg per day. The symp that came on in Nov. had pretty much subsided after about  7 weeks. They have recently come back about 4 days ago. Oh I also had an a right sided numbness onset a little over a year ago and had an Mri at that time that was neg.   I am a 28 year old female who is healthy and not overweight.  My mother does have MS.  I feel somewhat comforted that my initial testing was normal but I still feel terrified that this is MS that has just not shown up yet on MRI and other testing.  Could this be the case.  Is it common for people to have symp with normal testing and never get MS?  Am I at higher risk now that I have had a few episodes? I am very freaked out that my symptoms came back this 3rd time so quickly and seem stronger. Does this mean anything?

[Lulu54]

Hi Bloomfield15,
I would like to invite you to visit the MS forum here at MedHelp - we have a lot of savvy, knowledgeable MS patients like Heather who are more than happy to talk you through your questions.  Many of our members are just like you - worried about asking too many questions of their neurologist, for fear of being dismissed as needy.  Please stop over and spend some time with us.

here's to answers,
Lulu

[bloomfield15]

Thank you again for all of your information.  I will mention my symptoms to my neuro.  I just wondered if the new symptoms meant anything or if it would change any portion of my plan of care since most all of the tests relating to MS were completed and normal.  I don't know when and what I should report.  I don't want to get labeled as a spaz or "needy" as patients often do but it is frightening when things you can't control are happening to your body.  Thank you again!

[Dr. Daniel Kantor, MD]

Of course you should talk to your neurologist -- why would you talk to us but not your actual doctor.

For the Thoracic spine question, I refer you to my absract from ECTRIMS (the big MS meeting):

The majority of plaques were located in the cervical region (C2).

Of the 803 subjects in the study, 532 patients had a spinal MRI performed; 249 (46.8%) of these patients had at least one plaque in their spinal cord.

Of the 532 patients who had a spinal MRI, 516 had at least one cervical MRI performed and 270 had at least one thoracic MRI (254 patients had both a cervical and thoracic MRI performed).
Of the 516 patients who had received a cervical MRI, 228 (44.2%) had at least one plaque.
Of the 270 patients who had received a thoracic MRI, 81 (30.0%) had at least one plaque located in that region.

There were significantly less plaques located in the thoracic cord when compared to the cervical cord.
Within the thoracic cord there appears to be a parabolic configuration to the data, with a minimum amount of plaques located at roughly the T4 region (with the exception of T12).

Sixty eight of the 81 plaques identified within the thoracic region were also associated with a cervical plaque; the remaining 13 patients had thoracic plaques alone.

[bloomfield15]

Thank you for responding to my quesion.  Is it common for there to be lesions in the thoracic area?  I was told they would more likely to be found in the brain or cervical area initially. When or should I have these tests repeated?  I am schelduled to follow up in June with my neuro should I inform him that I have started to have twitches/spasms again?

[Dr. Daniel Kantor, MD]

I agree

[Heather3418]

Forgive me Dr. Kantor for jumping in to comment on your Forum.  'Bloomfield,' you seem to have a very thorough doctor that has done alot of appropriate testing.  I do wonder why your thoracic spine was not checked through MRI.  This is a common place to find lesions that may account for the numbness and tingling, especially on one side.  Of course it could be something other than MS causing this.

I presented on my first visit to a Neruologist 13 years ago with total right side numbness.  An MRI with and w/o contrast was done and a lesion in the thoracic spine was found.  An MRI w/wo contrast was then done and is showed five lesions in the brain.  This evidence along with other testing and an abnormal physical exam, confirmed a diagnosis of MS with my Neuro.

Maybe a suggestion to the doctor to do your thoracic spine, may show him something that could be causing the one sided weakness.  Again, I cannot say whether these symptoms are from MS or not.  I am not a doctor.

By the way, did you have your MRI done on a 1.5T MRI machine or a 3T?  It really does make a world of difference in the small lesions that cannot be seen on the 1.5T, if they are there.  This might be a question to your doctor.  Good luck to you and best wishes.

Again Dr. Kantor, forgive my intrusion on your thread.  I am not trying to play doctor here, just sharing my experiences with testing.

Heather

[Dr. Daniel Kantor, MD]

Of course it is difficult to say, but all your testing is normal and I understand your fears because of your mother. However, there is nothing in your description that points specifically to MS.

[bloomfield15]

My Mri's were with and without contrast. I also had x-rays of my neck that were normal.