Help with understanding CT scan diagnosis

[curious274]

I am a 32 year old veteran. been going to va for other reasons, but when they did a CT scan on me, the report said "oval shaped hypodensities inferior basal ganglia possibly represents prominent virchow-robin spaces or lacunar infarcts. Lesion in left basal ganglia measures 1.07 x .60 in size.  I asked the doctor about it and he said it was a TIA, but after some reading, i'm not sure it wasn't a stroke.  Do TIA's not show on CT scans?  If not, does that mean I've had a stroke?  I know i have many symptoms, like left arm numbness, partial left hand paralysis, confusion, not able to follow with instructions or tasks, etc.  Help me understand what's going on with me, the VA wont.

[mcpheeee]

A TIA is usually transient, meaning that the symptoms are not permanent.  It is a warning sign.  Imaging shows abnormalities, but the symptoms and images improve.  Might I suggest you ask for an MRI instead of a CT scan.  My daughter had a stroke whilst playing volleyball at school.  A CT scan was non specific, an MRI showed a massive stroke originating in the MCA decimating the basal ganglia, entire caudate and lentiform areas of the brain. She followed this first stroke with a hemorragic stroke further damaging the brain.  Another point of interest is that your neck/head pain could possibly be migraine.  Migraines come in different shapes and forms.  Not just the I've got a migraine, I need to lay down for a while type.  Migraine is linked to an increased risk of stroke.  My daughter now has migraine (she calls them headaches) most of the day every day, it is caused by the deterioration of blood vessels.  You really do need to seek specialist advice because whichever way you look at it you have signs and symptoms that indicate permanent damage to the basal ganglia and must be addressed swiftly.  You wouldn't believe the enormity of the damage that can be done to your whole body because of the basal ganglia .. you're a vet do what you do best .. be persistent even when you're tired.

[summer1226]

i recently had a ct scan and it came back that i had small chronic lacunar infarcts but when i had a mri test  my doctor said it came back unspecified so  what should i do

[oc1dean]

Even if your doctor thinks it was a TIA you need to followup to prevent a major stroke from happening, some type of blood thinner for clot based, clipping, glueing or surgery for a bleed. You probably need another opinion

[curious274]

Let me clarify why VA won't help me with the brain lesion.  I have an unrelated service-connected neck injury and they can only treat the service-connected problems.  The reason I didn't go to the hospital the night I think I had this TIA or stroke is that my neck injury causes alot of the same problems (spasms, pain, partial paralysis of hands, bad headaches, numbness, tingling and difficulty moving my left arm, with and without pain) and I didn't think about it being anything else until the results of the CT scan came in.