Hello, I wonder if anyone could give me any advise please, condensed history … Lots and lots of different sensory problems…pins and needles, hip numbness, leg pain, numb eye socket, clawed hand , all following a ten day pattern of flairing up then disappearing …been given a myriad of different medication, currently oramorph, amitryptaline and pregablin…have had mri brain and cervical spine, all clear, evoked potentials, all normal, neuro now booked a lumbar … Really dislike dr google as it throws up all sorts of scary stuff, but… Saw gp today and she said classic ms symptoms and presenting with enough clinical symptoms with a typical timeframe can give a ms diagnosis, I’m not so sure about this as I haven’t heard it before… Anybody had similar experience???
Forgot to mention the twitching, all over like little electric shocks and also as you can see the mind fog.
Hi,
I don’t have firsthand experience, but yes, it is technically possible to be diagnosed on symptom history alone.
Obviously, in days gone by, before the advent of MRI, VEPs and lumbar punctures, it would have been the only way.
But I would say, these days, it’s increasingly rare, and it would be a brave neuro who would diagnose without the reassurance of clear MRI evidence. The NICE guidelines do still allow it, but I’d say such a diagnosis would always be a little bit more open to question than one backed by MRI evidence. If it were me, I think I’d want the MRI evidence, because I’m not sure how much faith I’d have in a diagnosis without it.
In general, the longer you’ve had symptoms, the more likely something would show on MRI. If you’d had literally years of symptoms, but still nothing on MRI, it would make MS rather unlikely as the explanation.
Tina