Brain MRI - Male 15 years old

[hhumayun]

Reason: Vascular headaches, not elsewhere classified. Migraine without aura, not intractable without status migrainosus-dizziness and giddiness.
Findings: MRI of the brain was performed in orthogonal planes. T1W sagittal, T2W and FLAIR/GRE
Sequences were obtained. Diffusion weighted imaging was also performed.
The cerebral cortex and underlying white matter are unremarkable except, multiple bilateral sub cortical, deep white matter T-2 and FLAIR hyper intensities. Cause?. The ventricular system and base cisterns appear normal.
There is no acute infarct. The deep nuclei are unremarkable. The cerebellum and brainstem are unremarkable.
There is no shift of the midline structure identified. No mass effect or suggestion of edema.
The intracranial ICA and vertebra-basilar arteries reveal normal flow void. Diffusion imaging reveals no abnormality.
IMPRESSION: multiple bilateral demyelinating lesions, no acute infarct, no focal lesion
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome,

I'm going to assume you are the 15 year old who had the MRI done and not the parent of the 15 year old.....

The MRI was done to investigate the potential of there being a congenital or abnormal vascular explanation to explain your headaches-migraines, that side of things is as expected but there are multiple bilateral subcortical lesions.....'one' possible explanation the radiologist has mentioned is demyelinating conditions like MS BUT whilst this might seem frightening, bilateral subcortical lesions are associated with Migraines!

As Alex mentioned radiologists do not diagnose, the MRI is only a piece of your medical puzzle and the Neurologist is the doctor who works out all of your pieces, so it's neurologist job to determine if your MRI results are consistent with your situation or if there 'could be' something else going on.

Your doctor may decide to investigate the possibility of demyelinating conditions more thoroughly because of these MRI results, or continue to monitor you over the next few years but please do not worry that you might have a demyelinating condition like MS because it's been mentioned on your MRI....

I hope that helps......JJ

[HVAC]

You have lesions which look like demyelating lesions. It will take a neurologist to diagnose it. It could be MS. but a doctor will have to tell. Radiologists can't diagnose. They just make educated guesses. They do not have your son's history or neurological exam that is reflexes and such. I know it is hard not to worry.
Alex