Anyone been diagnosed with MS after having a clean MRI on 3T?

[wells89]

I know there are a bunch of ppl who have been diagnosed after clean MRI's -- but any on a 3T? I'm still in limbo land with continuing symptoms, and three neurologists assert that MS is extremely unlikely after my clean MRI's last year on 3T (brain and cervical spine).

Thanks, all!

[wells89]

Thanks for your replies. You are all wonderful. I think I'm going to back off from doctors for a while. Thanks for your support!

[supermum_ms]

Hi wells,

I would say that MS would be the 'less likely' cause, if there's absolutely no lesions found anywhere, AND on top of having no visible MRI lesions, there wasn't any clinical signs of neurological damage. Clinical signs are more significant to cause than many sx's are, clinical signs eg. Babinski's, Hoffman's, clonus, hyperreflexes, L'Hermitte's, Ataxia, Intention tremor, Optic Neuritis, Diplopia, Nystagmus etc

Clinical signs of neurological causation will show up in the human body, sometimes even before the MRI shows it, and whilst its true that lower strength machines, bigger slices vs smaller, 1.5T vs 3T etc etc can make a significant difference in the MRI evidence. The clinical signs of neurological causation should hold even more significance, because the clinical signs will be evident, regardless of what the MRI shows up.

I don't think there is any research that supports excluding MS based on the MRI evidence alone, but you can't ignore your facts, and if none of your evidence is actually suggestive of MS, then logically MS would have to be low on your list of possible causes. Keep in mind that whilst MS can be difficult to dx, there are a lot of sx's associated to MS, that are also associated with many other conditions, and its often the sx's that are unrelated to MS that become directional clues leaning towards the other possible causes.

I just had a quick look to see if you'd mentioned anything that could be a directional clue and i noticed you said you think you are per-menopausal and this all started when you went on a gluten free diet and i'd definitely think both these issues are worth exploring further.

Cheers.............JJ        

[kwarendorf]

Hi Wells -

I hope that others chime in here, as I'm on the other end of the spectrum. I was diagnosed after one set of MRI on 1.5T machines.

If you have three neurologists looking at 3T images and not finding anything, It may be time to look in another direction. Then again it may be time to look for a fourth neurologist...one other possibilty would be thoracic spine images, which you don't mention.

If it were me, I think I'd look for other possible causes of your symptoms.

Kyle