Could it be MS

[MeLady13]

there are scattered bilateral foci of abnormal high T2 and FLAIR signal in the peri ventricular and subcortical white matter bilaterally,most prominent in the high frontal regions. Differential diagnosis is broad and demyelinating process such as multiple sclerosis and correlation with post contrast imaging may be helpful to evaluate for acute foci of demyelination...                                                                                                                                                                          Please help me understand this in plane English..

[MeLady13]

I have been having lots of headaches tingling and numbness in my hands..so dr send me for a mri..

[MeLady13]

thank you

[MeLady13]

I have been having lots of headaches, and tingling and numbness in my hands so dr send me for a MRI..

[kwarendorf]

Hi ML - Welcome to the group.

Radiology reports are notoriously difficult to understand. Radiologists are not diagnosticians and simply report wht they observe on images. They will list several possible causes for their findings, only sometimes listing a more likely suspect.

You have presented this info i a vacuum. We don't know what lead you to have the MRI, which makes it difficult for us to give ou feed back. THe more you share, the more we can help :-)

Kle

[jensequitur]

Okay, your question was to put this in plain English... here we go!

there are scattered bilateral foci of abnormal high T2 and FLAIR signal in the peri ventricular and subcortical white matter bilaterally, most prominent in the high frontal regions.

Bilateral - both sides. Foci - white spots. T2 and FLAiR are both imaging sequences. Basically the magnets are programmed to move in different ways for these sequences and detect slightly different bits of information. FLAiR is good for detecting new areas of inflammation (it finds wet spots better) while T2 is a scan that produces a pretty good picture.

Periventricular - next to the ventricles. Subcortical - below the surface of the cortex. White matter - the fatty layer of the brain that surrounds the gray matter. High frontal - in the front.

"Differential diagnosis is broad and demyelinating process such as multiple sclerosis and correlation with post contrast imaging may be helpful to evaluate for acute foci of demyelination..."

Differential diagnosis is broad - Not enough information for a clnical diagnosis. Correlation with post contrast imaging - Compare scans with scans after contrast dye is administered. (Which doesn't make sense, if you have a FLAiR sequence they would have administered contrast.) Acute foci of demyelination simply means that there are white spots, and they should be looked at further.

This is just my experience from looking exhaustively at my own scans. Hope this helps!

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome,

Usually the MRI report will also include the list of all the common causes and not just mention "differential diagnosis is broad" but basically from my lay persons understanding your MRI has shown you have non specific micro vascular changes in both the right and left sides of your brain, which is mostly in the frontal lobes and wouldn't be uncommon findings with migraines, hypertension, diabetes, age related white matter changes etc.

Before you get worried about MS with reading 'demyelination' in the differentials of your MRI report, why did you have the brain MRI done, what were your symptoms to prompt getting the MRI?

Cheers........JJ