problems with radiologist

[Needhelp16]

Have any of you ever had problems with the radiologist that reads your MRI's? I just had a MRI done on my brain and cspine.  The reports are utter crap.  No details and both are just a paragraph.

Viewing previous reports, they are very detailed.  I've never had this radiologist read any of my MRI's until just recent.  I'm not doing very well and I'm quite angry over these last reports.  I've already placed a call to my neuro, but surprise surprise I haven't heard a word back!

What can I or should I do?  Has anyone else had this problem?  Thanks in advance for any comments.

Laura

[supermum_ms]

I've only ever had the one set of MRI's, 1.5T brain and spine no contrast, funny but the radiologists after they'd run the MRI's were happily asking me questions about MS, how long i'd had MS etc. The report was written by someone else, the first line of my brain MRI states "chronic number of white matter and deep white matter lesions inconsistent with the patients age" doesnt say exactly where they are but did say i didn't have a visible lesion in the Corpus callum (sp) and thats basically it. The one for my spine basically talks about how everything is perfectly normal, no evidence of degenerative disc etc etc

Over the years i've noticed how different peoples reports are, some are like mine and say next to nothing and then some people get full details about where each lesion is, shape, size and possible dx's. There doesnt seem to be any consistency in what gets written, you'd think there would be a template that everyone who writes them has to fill out but it doesnt seem to happen.

I cant think of anything you can do about it, you'd assume if there isn't enough information that your neuro would be asking for more, but that assumption is probably a bit wrong, some neuro's read MRI's for them selves and others dont and just rely on the report. I'm not even sure you can call the radiologist and ask for more details so it can be compared to your prior MRI's or not, i suppose it couldn't hurt to ask.

Cheers...........JJ

[teenyturner]

Don't get me started !!!  

I was sent to have an MRI by my oncologist for neuro problems.  Radiologist reported arthritis, bone marrow problems etc but no mention of brain or spinal cord lesions.  My oncologist admits he can't read MRIs so he relied on the report.  He told me it must have been chemo related neuro problems.

My symptoms worsened and I had problems walking, so I was sent for a second MRI, with the same report. I was referred to a neuro doc, he THOUGHT my MRI looked like my cord was hyper intense.  Told to watch and wait!!!

Oncologist stopped my chemo due to neuro problems, he also ordered another MRI and did an LP. (note, this was my onco, not my neuro) . LP. Showed increased protein with 14-3-3 protein in it (indicates acute neuronal death).  MRI report said I had brain white matter lesions, as well as cervical and thoracic spine lesions.  It went on to state the lesions had extended in the thoracic spine and diminished in the cervical spine compared to previous MRIs.  So obviously, these lesions were there and obvious on the previous two MRIs and they were not reported on by the radiologist or acted on by the neuro.

I went to the MRI company and put in a complaint about the radiologist who read the first two MRIs.  I didn't so much as get an acknowledgement that he was told about the complaint let alone an apology.  My oncologist was appalled and now doesn't trust that any report is accurate.  My neuro just said "these things happen", talk about protecting each others backside!

I hope you get a bit more satisfaction than I did.

Regards

[Needhelp16]

I hear what you're saying Lulu.  Unfortunately my neuro really isn't like that. My MSologist I've only seen once because she's 500 miles away.  However, I did have them send the reports and the discs to her too.

I also have degenerative changes in my cspine and wanted to see if it's progressed at all.  This radiologist didn't even comments on it, whereas the previous report, from the same place but a different radiologist, went through every vertebrae and said what was wrong with it.

**sighs** I hate doing docs work for them!

Laura

[Audrey_M]

Laura:

I had that problem with a report, so the next time I went for an MRI with the same facility, I talked to the technician before the MRI and she took notes about what the report should include. I ended up with a much more detailed report.

As LuLu said, a good neuro will review the images on their own and not rely on the report, however their are other users where a detailed radiologists report can swing things for you, such as insurers.

[Lulu54]

the radiologists who read my images are very succinct in their reports and don't go into major details, despite that being the recommended method.  With my MSologist, he doesn't read their reports anyway and wants to look at them on his own without being biased by their findings.

However, I always want a copy of the report so i can pretend I know what I am looking at! LOL