Disappearing Lesions-Good Explanation

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading up on whether lesions can disappear from brain/spinal cord. I found this really interesting right up from a nurse who has had MS for 10 years.

Quote:

Question:

"I had only had a building of lesions while I was on Avonex. When I was on Copaxone, the lesion my doctor was so worried about, the one on my brain stem healed, although I still have those symptoms (not sure why). Eventually, I got another another in a different area of my brain stem. But since starting Tysabri, my lesion load has almost been cut in half. I don’t know if it’s the Tysabri, or my body healing itself, as Tysabri is known for it’s effectiveness in preventing future relapses, I believe.

From everything I’ve heard and read, the amount of day to day symptoms and the the difficulty of your day to day life, or the difficulty of your relapses, generally don’t relate to your lesion load".

Answer:

First, yes, lesions can disappear from the MRI in MS, and it happens all the time. I describe how it occurs in the first Health Page, “How MRIs Show Lesions in MS.” In brief, a lesion (a T2 hyperintense white matter lesion) first demyelinates and shows up on the MRI for as long as it is in the damaged state. The body tries to repair the damaged myelin (fatty coating around the nerve). The attempt at remyelinating is often quite successful and the lesion may disappear from the MRI.

In reality remyelination is not perfect in healing the nerve, so the nerve signals in the repaired nerves are usually still slowed. The symptom that lesion may have caused may go away, but may reappear when the nerve is stressed - like with getting overheated (remember the hot tub incident?) or with fatigue.

This remyelination is why people with classic, milder RRMS can have a relapse and then apparently return completely to normal during their remissions. Even people with more severe disease still have some lesions that disappear. So disappearing lesions are quite normal in MS. Lesions come and lesions go - but mostly they come.

About the resolution of lesions with Solumedrol. The answer is that solumedrol does not heal lesions. If it did they could treat MS with steroids alone. What the steroids do is relieve any inflammation that may be causing acute symptoms. Ideally you would think that all lesions with new inflammation will “enhance” on MRI, but if the inflammation is minor/small, they might not be seen as enhancing.

Your lesions disappeared 3 weeks after the steroids. In general this is too long a time to say that the Solumedrol is responsible for the disappearance. Steroids take effect within 24 hours and do their thing pretty quickly. If you felt better during and after the IV steroids then we can safely say that some of the inflammation around lesions was helped by the med.

  1. Are the lesions that apparently disappeared really gone-gone or just smaller or hiding in there still?

  2. Are there any other neuological conditions that you know of that have disappearing lesions like that found with MS lesions?

There is no way of telling what truly has happened. The lesions may have shrunk so that they are no longer visible to the MRI machine, but maybe could be seen by a more powerful MRI machine. OR they may have healed so well that the area of the lesion now looks just like normal-appearing white matter. Within the same person both things could be happening with different lesions.

Remember, though, that when the brain repairs damaged myelin the repair is not perfect. Though the nerves may look okay, they typically still transmit their signals more slowly than they did before the damage. This slowness may show up as the reappearance of old symptoms when a person gets overheated.

A good example of this is when a bout of optic neuritis heals. Optic neuritis is caused by a lesion of demyelination on the optic nerve. The lesion may remyelinate and the visual symptoms will go away. Any lesion that was seen on the MRI will also disappear. However, when you do a VEP (Visual Evoked Potential) on that person, the result will still be abnormally slow. Remember the VEP measures the speed of the visual signal along the optic nerve and then to the visual center of the brain. After optic neuritis you typically find the nerve signal remains slowed even after healing.

Quix Tips

~Many other disorders can have lesions that heal. These include the autoimmune disorders, infections, demyelinating disorders like ADEM and others. However, I think that the pattern of appearing and disappearing lesions is a strong pointer toward MS.

~Not all people with MS will have lesions disappear. Also, not all lesions any of us have will eventually disappear. Some are too badly damaged and cannot be remyelinated.

__________________
Moderation Team
Disabled RN with MS for 10 years
SPMS EDSS 7
Tysabri

I thought this was really well written.

Shazzie xx

Hi everyone

I have been reading up about the possibility of lesions disappearing and found this interesting right up by a nurse with MS. She has had MS for 10 years.

1 Like

I mean write-up not right up!! What a twit.

Shazzie xx

hi shazzie,

really interesting and well found (by a twit!)

thanks

carole x

Hahahaha!!! Not good is it?

I thought it was interesting. I have got to have a whole spine MRI soon because my walking has got bad and I was wondering what they would see. Whether there would be old stuff from the original MRI or new stuff. I just hope I don’t have to wear a head cage. Wouldn’t have thought so as it doesn’t mention my brain, Mind you, I think I lost that years ago.

Shazzie xx

I agree It is well put and not to complicated .

aw shazzie

i really hope it all goes well for you.

who knows, maybe your lost brain is hiding somewhere wth mine.

carole x

Well written, ‘normal’ people able to understand it.

I reckon my brain’s with yours and Carole’s, probably where the lost socks from the washing and the biro’s from work go!!!

Hope your mri goes well.

Cherry x

Interesting read that was.My mri last year said that a lesion on my spine had changed/shifted from one side to the other side of my spine and crossed to both sides of spine and that is was more pronounced. (Neuro speak) Complicated stuff this neurology is.I enjoyed this article here

I must admit. I looked at it and thought oh no that’s a long read but I’m glad I read it and it was really easy reading in the end. Glad you enjoyed reading it too.

She explained really well how even though the lesions may disappear, the areas in which they slowed down messages to parts of our body when active are still causing symptoms as if they were still active (if you know what I mean).

Shazzie xx

This was so helpful. I have not yet been dx with MS. I had been dx with a stroke 1.5 years ago. New neuro doc said he didnt think it was a stroke since the symptoms were not what would occur where the lesions were. Stated that where the lesions were was more consistent with MS.

Had an MRI and it was completely clean. No more lesions! I know they were there because 1. I have been an ER nurse for 20 years and know what a lesion looks like and 2. The doc showed them to my husband and I. New MRI- they have disappeared.

I dont necessarily want to have MS, but I would like to know why I lose my balance to the point of needing a cane to walk without falling, drop things all the time, get numbness and tingling in my hands and face often, have a very hoarse voice that doesnt clear, moving my head side to side causes vomit inducing vertigo. Also have ataxia.

Scared and confused.

Does anyone have any idea why we get lesions in the first place?