Hi there. I understand what you are going through. Your multiple symptoms are suggestive of MS and need to be excluded. The other differential diagnosis of MS which can be ruled out with blood tests, CSF analysis, CT, MRI scan, EMG can help rule out other diagnosis. these are complicated migraines, tumor or other cord compression like spinal stenosis, stroke, herpes simplex encephalitis, HTLV -1 associated myelopathy, myasthenia gravis, diabetes, lyme disease, SLE, sjogren’s syndrome, sarcoidosis, paraneoplastic syndromes, guillain barre syndrome, parkinson’s disease, cervical spondylosis etc. MS is a chronic demyelinating disorder where the disease phase is characterized by active phase and remissions. It has multiple symptoms and signs and is 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. 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 in addition, a spinal tap. Therefore, it would be prudent to consult your neurologist with these concerns. Hope this helps. Take care.
Thank you doctor. Would a low lymphocyte count have any significance? It was about 14%, only one point lower than the lowest number in the range. I have also had high granulocytes as well, running about 78% a couple of points high as well. I have had two CBCs at two different doctor's offices ran by two different companies and they both had these numbers.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
thanks for any help!