Stroke Symptoms bur MRI negative

[cokiee]

Over a period of 10 days my 88 year old father went from healthy and active to hospitalization..First went feeling in left leg then left arm then speech went intermitently.None of 3 Doctors diagnosed stroke but felt it was compressed disc or pinched nerve.For 1 week now he is in a stroke rehab unit in a wheelchair with catheter and very little speech and some disorientation,MRI and Cat scan and Doppler all show negative results.Is there any possibility that there could be another diagnosis that is being missed?

[caregiver222]

Systemic blood infections can ocasionally cause strokes because of the "debri" generated by the bacterial infections. And death of tissue by the toxins released when ther bacterial population is suddenly attacked by medication. There could be an inflammatory process in the brain. There is a patient I ocasionally take care of who suffered loss of speech and paralysis from mitochondrial inflammation. A very sharp female physician prescribed a course of prednisone for thispatient and a week later he was playing the piano and speech was back to normal. His MRI, by the way, was essentially normal. I really don't know what is going with your dad and don't want to provide false hope, but don't give up.

[cokiee]

thankyou vega for your insight and taking the time to respond..interestingly enough he was on an antibiotic for a urinary infection when all these symptoms started,a month ago,,,,noone has ever mentioned the possibility of any causation lately other then stroke,We will definitely be following up on this,,,again ty

[vega1318]

These symptoms are very strange but a pinched nerve would not cause any problems with speech.  First, you should make sure that the doctors checked him out for any infection:  urinary or respiratory (e.g. pneumonia).  Some symptoms such as these could still be related to strokes if someone has any narrowing in the arteries supplying the brain either from the outside or the inside.  The brain could then be somewhat "starved" for oxygen and although no outward signs of stroke may appear on a routine MRI, some hypoperfusion may still be occurring.  Lastly, since these are very acute in onset, I would have the doctors consider doing a spinal tap to rule out any infectious or inflammatory process going on in his brain itself.  There should be an explanation found.