signal change question

[poorkid]

Ist of all, thank you so much for the advice that you give.  You are truely wonderful for helping us!

My questions is fairly simple:

The day of my diagnosis the MS specialist that I saw said something that I am curious about.

I have had spinal fusion (C3 - C6) and have 3 screws and a plate inserted.
This of course makes seeing spinal lesions somewhat difficult.  

My lesions are on the spinal column.  The one that diagnosed me was in the area of the fusion.  In comparison with the previous MRI he saw a new lesion.  He said that he has seen lots of artifact but never with signal change.  

What does signal change mean?  I know the fusion causes some difficulty in detecting lesions but the "signal change"
is what finally lead to me diagnosis.  

Just curious. I am a 50 yr old woman who seems to be progressing quite rapidly.  I still have trouble accepting my diagnosis.  

I go to the Shapiro clinic in Mpls and know these Dr.s are wonderful.

Thanks again.  By the way, I did have a negative LP which is why I keep denying my diagnosis.

[poorkid]

By the way, I will add more about myself at a later time when I'm posting from home and not at work!

[poorkid]

Thank you so much for the informative answer and for the warm welcomes!

I love this site and look forward to the "over 50" subdivision!

[Lulu54]

Hi and welcome- we're going to have to start a new subdivision of this forum for all of us over 50 who got our dx older than usual.  There sure are quite a few of us here, including me.  I hope you come here often and find the forum informative and helpful.  My best, Lulu

[Quixotic1]

Hi, and Welcome!  I see that you have been reading for a while.

The "signal" is the inforamtion that the MRI machine picks up while doing the scanning.

As you know, if you have ever seen an MRI image, the MRI gives a picture of the brain, spine or of whatever is being imaged.  Depending on the technique being used the "signal" may be strong or weak.  A strong signal shows a white area and a weaker signal a darker signal.

When we see lesions on the MRI image we see places where the signal has changed, but it shouldn't have.  The spinal cord should look the same all the way down, but a lesion will show up brighter, thus it will have more signal.  

With all the hardware in your neck the MRI gets a lot of confusing signals (you might call them echos) and these can show up as artifact - places where the image looks "off".  But, when the same area shows up (lights up) with a stronger signal than before and it shows up consistently on different views, we can know it is a ture lesion.  Lesion is another word for abnormal area.

There are two Health Pages that talk a little about this.  The first is "How MRIs show Lesions in MS."

The second is called "How MRIs Work".

They also might help you understand.

I'm sorry to hear that your disease seems to be progressing fast.  I am 57 and my disease presented at age 52.  I also sometimes feel that I have fairly rapid progression, too.  Why don't you tell us a little about yourself and what you have been going through.  There are a good number of us 50 and older here.  We always welcome company.

Quix