Missing part of corpus callosum??

[MDeStef84]

I'm a 27year old woman and in the past 6-7 months have had alot of pain in the middle of my scalp(top of thehead) numbness in my ankles and pain in the lower neck. I've had lightheadedness, dizziness, fainiting and once when I fainted I lost control of my bowels. I had a CT scan done in september 2010 that came back perfect. I have a referral to see a neurologist, and was told by my GP to go to the ER say I have this feeling again before I see the neurologist. I went to the ER and they did another CT scan. The doctor came back and told me that I am missing half of my corpus callosum and will now need an MRI to look at the nerves further. My question is, could repeated blows to the head damage these nerves in the corpus callosum? And might that be why I had a normal CT scan 6 months ago? Could this condition have anything to do with the pain and fainting spells that i've been having? any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[MDeStef84]

Thank you for that information, I have many of those symptoms that you listed, including the vision problems. I will definitely follow up with my neurologist and again thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. Have a great day.

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there. This sounds very much like multiple sclerosis, which is a demyelinating disease with multiple symptoms and signs and a diagnosis of exclusion. The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are loss of balance, muscle spasms, numbness in any area, problems with walking and coordination, tremors in one or more arms and legs. Bowel and bladder symptoms include frequency of micturition, urine leakage, eye symptoms like double vision uncontrollable rapid eye movements, facial pain, painful muscle spasms, tingling, burning in arms or legs, depression, dizziness, hearing loss, fatigue etc. You have many of these symptoms. The treatment is essentially limited to symptomatic therapy so the course of action would not change much whether MS has been diagnosed or not. Apart from clinical neurological examination, MRI shows MS as paler areas of demyelination, two different episodes of demyelination separated by one month in at least two different brain locations. Spinal tap is done and CSF electrophoresis reveals oligoclonal bands suggestive of immune activity, which is suggestive but not diagnostic of MS. Demyelinating neurons, transmit nerve signals slower than non-demyelinated ones and can be detected with EP tests. These are visual evoked potentials, brain stem auditory evoked response, and somatosensory evoked potential. Slower nerve responses in any one of these is not confirmatory of MS but can be used to complement diagnosis along with a neurological examination, medical history and an MRI and a spinal tap. The corpus callosum is an area of the brain that is likely to be attacked in multiple sclerosis. Lesions in corpus callosum are not associated with specific psychological and neurological symptoms. MRI evidence suggests that MS lesions in this area are better correlated with cognitive dysfunction. Impaired judgment and defective memory are potential symptoms of damage to the forward part and behavioral changes with damage to the rear part. Talk to your neurologist for best advice. Take care.