Hi, After I’d seen my neuro in May (1st time) and he had my brain mri results he sent me a letter saying there was several small areas of altered signal but nothing to suggest a specific neurolgical disorder and he wondered about the possibility of inflammation of the nerves - if I wanted to pursue it then he suggested I had a lumbar puncture (which I had in July, but don’t know the results) As he hadn’t requested a spinal MRI my GP did and I also had that In July I managed to get a copy of my spinal mri results from my GP - no problems he just printed it off It says “there is only subtle central hyperintensity of the cervical spinal cord at C6/7 but no discrete are of signal intensity change to clearly label this as a demyelinating plaque” and “At the level of T8 there is again subtle central cord signal intensity change but no clear discrete area of altered signal intensity to loabel as a demyelinating plaque” I just wondered if anyone had any ideas what it may mean. I suppose I’m getting impatient as my symptoms haven’t got any better as yet and I’ve been off work since early May. I’m using a stick to walk outside and can only manage 10 minutes or so without being shattered, my balance is shot, I have horrible sensations in my feet all the time, can’t feel hot or cold on my legs, spasms which make my legs jump all over and sometimes waves of “coldness” which spread up and down either side of my body. I know 3 weeks isn’t long to wait and I have accepted that he’s probably not going to wave a magic wand and cure me but my worst fear is that he’s going to turn round and say he’s not sure and he’ll see me in 6 months time! Thanks for reading this and thanks in advance for any replies! S x
Hi S My first private MRI showed nothing except lesion on my optic nerve and a small lesion on my spine. I also had a test to check my eye to see the way in which it was working and there was a delay in the speed at which the signal was getting back to my brain. So it was definitely Optic neuritis. Not long after (3 months) I had another done (including spine) when my sight went in the other eye. I also had a LP to check for Oligoclonal bands. There was a massive difference between the two MRI’s and I was diagnosed soon after. I had a number of large lesions down my spine, both optic nerves and also several on my brain. It really does depend on the neuro as to how they interpret them. Your LP will be a good indication of what’s going on but again it’s not final on whether you do or don’t have MS. But for me that was the last peice in the puzzel. The symptoms you describe are very simlar to the ones I had early on. However as with all thing medical they like to be certain. I was in limbo for a short while when talking with others, however I was also being looked at for a condition called Devics and that up until my second MRI that was the general consensus by my med team. It does take time and the wait is horrible but remember you can ask for a second opinion and they do routinely re check the MRI scans. ( I was told of another area last year from my second MRI after they reviewed it. Best of luck and don’t get to down. Cheers Strudders
Dogtanion wrote:
It says “there is only subtle central hyperintensity of the cervical spinal cord at C6/7 but no discrete are of signal intensity change to clearly label this as a demyelinating plaque” and “At the level of T8 there is again subtle central cord signal intensity change but no clear discrete area of altered signal intensity to loabel as a demyelinating plaque”
Hi S. What the above means: “hyperintensity” is an area that is brighter than it should be. (Lesions show up as hyperintensities) “subtle” is saying that the difference in brightness is not obvious. “central” means what it says: the changes on your spinal cord are in the middle of the cord rather on the edges. “no clear discrete area” means that the hyperintensities didn’t have clear edges. “demyelinating plaque” means a lesion caused by demyelination: basically an area that has been damaged by something that attacks the myelin of the nerves. So overall, there is definitely something going on, but the MRI results are not typical of demyelination and therefore MS. Of course, in this wacky world of neurology, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have it - MS often presents in weird ways! This is from a radiology website (http://www.radiologyassistant.nl/en/4556dea65db62#a4599773d13d9d): “A spinal cord lesion together with a lesion in the cerebellum or brainstem is very suggestive of MS. Spinal cord lesions are uncommon in most other CNS diseases, with exception of ADEM, Sarcoid, Lyme and SLE.” These will likely be things that your neuro will be considering next time you see him. I suspect the LP results will be important too. I hope you get some answers on the day - please let us know. Karen x