Hi, Was diagnosed in June with RRMS and had clear brain scan but 2 lesions in spine and failed VEP which supported previous case of optic neuritis. Have just had 2nd brain MRI before I start on Rebif which showed… " solitary non specific white matter lesion in the right supra-marginal gyrus. There was no enhancement with contrast." What does this mean and what symptoms would this cause? I had told the neuro I thought I had been through another relapse since my scans in March that led to diagnosis, which is why she repeated the brain MRI. Thanks. X
hi cazhoz
the supra-marginal gyrus is a portion of the parietal part of your brain. Your brain is split into lots of areas, and the parietal part is on the sides of the brain towards the back, but closest to the skull. it is the area of your brain responsible for language. no enhancement with contrast means that when they injected the dye into you and did the scan again, the lesion did not show up anymore than it did with out the dye (sometimes dyes show up more lesions or brighter ones on the MRI scan).
the brain is the organ which we still have lots to learn about, so any symptoms you have might not necessarily be linked especially if your language is fine.
chocolat-e-fudge x
hi cazhoz
the supra-marginal gyrus is a portion of the parietal part of your brain. Your brain is split into lots of areas, and the parietal part is on the sides of the brain towards the back, but closest to the skull. it is the area of your brain responsible for language. no enhancement with contrast means that when they injected the dye into you and did the scan again, the lesion did not show up anymore than it did with out the dye (sometimes dyes show up more lesions or brighter ones on the MRI scan).
the brain is the organ which we still have lots to learn about, so any symptoms you have might not necessarily be linked especially if your language is fine.
chocolat-e-fudge x
I fully understand the need to know about what bit of my brain has just been potentially b******d up by my MS(!), but it’s not an exact science and it honestly is better to stick to symptoms rather than lesions. Saying that, I am a brain geek, so of course I always investigate things 
So here goes for you:
The big part of the brain, the cerebrum, is divided into four main “lobes” (areas): frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital. If you google “lobes of the brain” or something like that, you’ll see where they all are. Basically, the frontal is at the front, the occipital is at the back and the parietal and temporal are in the middle (with the parietal at the top). The cerebrum has two halves/hemispheres, each with these four lobes. So, e.g., the right frontal lobe is the frontal lobe in the right hemisphere.
The cerebrum looks like something soft that has been squished up to fit it in to a small space - which it is it’s evolved that way to be able to fit more into the skull. The “out” bits, the ridges/folds, are called gyri and the “in” bits, the troughs, are called sulci. The supramarginal gyrus is one of the gyri of the parietal lobe.
Virtually every part of the brain is involved in more than one function. The supramarginal gyrus is involved in lots of things including knowing what the sensations are in your hands, following instructions, writing, knowing left from right, using tools, and understanding numbers. From what I’ve read, it appears that the left supramarginal gyrus processes things from the left and right side of the body, but the right supramarginal gyrus is mainly about the left side of the body. So a right hemisphere lesion might, for example, cause problems telling hot from cold in the left hand, but a left hemisphere lesion might create problems with both hands.
But your lesion is in the white matter near the supramarginal gyrus and not on the gyrus itself (which is made of gray matter). Gray matter is the stuff that does all the encoding, processing, “thinking” in the brain. White matter is the stuff that carries signals between different bits of gray matter. When something interferes with the signals, the brain is rather brilliant at working around it - finding new routes - like taking a detour around road works. So, when this damage first happened, it may well have slowed things down and/or caused some disruption (i.e. new symptoms), but it is also possible for it to have had no noticeable effect whatsoever because one of the classic signs of MS is what is called “clinically silent” lesions - lesions that don’t cause any noticeable symptoms.
As far as the solitary and non-specific bit goes, it just means that there’s just the one lesion, but that there’s no obvious cause (it’s probably safe to assume that it’s your MS though). No enhancement means that the lesion wasn’t visible on the scans taken after the contrast injection. This means that it wasn’t “active” / forming / inflamed at the time of the scan.
What does it all mean? Tbh, not a lot. After all, lesions are rather expected in MS. I guess it confirms your diagnosis though, which is no bad thing in the beginning when a lot of us keep hoping that there’s been a mistake and can’t really move on mentally. It’s also good that you’ve had this scan done now as one of Rebif’s jobs is to prevent new lesions and new lesions while you’re on it is one of the criteria for going onto a stronger DMD, e.g. Tysabri. So this scan provides a good baseline for monitoring how well Rebif is working for you.
Fingers crossed that it works really well
Karen x
Thank you both so much for your replies. Karen you really are amazing in the replies and help you give to people and I thank you for the depth of your reply. I gradually lost the use of my left side in March which affected my speech, comprehension, walking, use of hand etc. your description of possibilities covered me perfectly. The reason I was asking is although I have recovered well and am now left with mainly sensory symptoms on both sides, I struggle when more than one person speaks to me at a time. Like both of my children!! I find it hard to multi task any more as just can’t take in the information. I am adjusting and coming to terms with things and am pretty determined to try and make the best of things. Thanks again. X