Hello everyone,
I was diagnosed with MS while living abroad, since my return to the UK about 2 years ago I have had 2 scans but only scanning my brain. Is this usually? In the past I have always had spine and brain scans so just wondering what is usual.
Many thanks.
Hi. I’ve had several MRI scans over the years and they are always just head and neck. I have an annual one now because of being on Tecfidera, and again it’s just head and neck. It’s never occurred to me to ask if this is usual, I’m just glad not to be in the scanner for longer than about half an hour!
Thanks for your reply. I have ppms and I have an Ocrevus infusion every 6 months and I was just curious about the scans, I suppose the least time that has to be spent in the scanner the better.
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Ive only ever had head scans. I once asked why no spine scans and the answer was something along the lines of : in general if you had any new lesions on your spine you would have new symptoms- any damage to the spinal chord will produce very obvious symptoms. New lesions in the brain might not produce any immediately obvious new symptoms ( to some extent the brain can compensate for areas of local damage). Certainly when I was first diagnosed following an episode of optic neuritis the MRI revealed ‘quite a few’ lesions none of which seemed to have resulted in any obvious symptoms.
Thanks for your reply. I have always had head and spine scans so it is good to know what they only scan the head.