Helping on MRI scans results

[gmac353]

Hi All,

I'm new here, just found out about the forum on Google and was amazed with the amount of information you post here!
I'm 29 and I'm from Brazil but live in Ireland. At the moment I'm getting into a diagnosis of MS, although I personally have no doubt that it's my "issue" from my history of symptoms etc.

Anyway getting into the point, end of last year I went to a doctor here in Ireland to check my eyes and he couldn't find anything wrong on the tests, so he suspected it could be optical neuritis and requested me a test. The test result confirmed the neuritis and after googling it I found out that most likely it would be related to MS.
After reading about MS I was sure that I was suffering from it as I had a couple of other episodes that are also common symptoms of MS.
I went back home (Brazil) for Christmas and decided to visit a neurologist there as I personally don't like the health system in Ireland. Between the time I got the confirmation about neuritis and my flight to Brazil I found out about a doctor and researcher that is applying a treatment with high doses of Vitamin D on his patients with excellent results... so I read a lot about this, watched videos and the results were really amazing.. no side effects and the most amazing thing is no further MS symptoms further down the treatment road.
I was very lucky and managed to get an appointment with a doctor from his team and after almost 3 hours consultation the doctor was pretty sure that I have MS, however he couldn't confirm without the MRI scans. He also asked for blood and urine tests which I managed to do in Brazil.

Due to the short time in Brazil I had to have the MRIs done here in Ireland, luckly everything worked fine with that and I recently got the result... however it's hard enough to get an appointment with a neurologist over here, even for private (which costs 270 euro). Therefore I would like to hear your opinion as more experienced people... please find the result below:

"
MRI brain:
On the axial FLAIR sequences several linear periventricular deep white matter high signal lesions are identified consistent with focal demyelinating plaques.
None of these demyelinating plaques show significant enhancement postgadolinium.
The gray matter is normal.
No focal infarction or space occupying lesion identified.
The posterior fossa structures are well preserved.

MRI cervical spine:
On the sagittal T2-weighted sequences there is a high signal lesion in the superior cervical spinal cord at the level of the odontoid peg. A further high signal lesion is also seen posterior to the intervertebral disc space of T2 and T3.
These lesions are consistent with focal areas of spinal cord demyelination.
The lesions do not show enhancements postgadolinium.
No evidence of cervical spinal stenosis identified.
"
I really appreciate if someone could provide me with your opinion about my results.
For the ones interested to know about the treatment with high doses of Vitamin D I recommend to google for "Dr. Cicero Galli Coimbra", you'll find loads of information. There's also a facebook groud of his patients following his treatment and they share their results, etc...

Many thanks in advance.

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome to our little MS community,

You've got two parts to your post that i can see, 1 being your MRI results and possibility of MS and 2 the Vit D treatment for MS. Keep in mind that we are not dr's, everything said is an unqualified lay persons personal opinion, based on experience and the information provided.

Part 1:

From my understanding of MS and the Mcdonald Criteria, your results do indicate MS is a more likely dx, because of a few things that point more strongly towards the MS direction. Evidence of Optic Nuritis (ON) and 'brain' lesions gives a person a higher rate of probability or converting to MS within a 5 yr time span.

Your brain lesions are don't show significant enhancement so there maybe some enhancing still happening(?), if they are it typically means they are still active and there is still demyelination happening. If they are still active or enhancing, the lesions were caught on MRI in the right time frame.

According to the Mcdonald Criteria, for Clinically Defined Multiple Sclerosis (CDMS) a person needs to have 1 or more lesions, in at least 2 of 4 specific areas of the Central Nervous System (CNS). These specific areas are the Periventricular,  Juxacortical, Infratentorial, and Spinal Cord, your MRI results have indicated you have lesions in both the Periventricular and spinal cord areas.

One MRI can show the time and space aspect of the Criteria, if the MRI shows a person has both enhancing and non-enhancing lesions because that indicates both old and new lesions, so more than one attack. The criteria says " 2 attacks; objective clinical evidence of 2 or more lesions OR objective clinical evidence of 1 lesion with reasonable historical evidence of a prior attack"

So from my understanding, unfortunately you do seem to have the "objective clinical evidence" of at least 2 attacks, (periventricular brain lesions + spinal lesions) that they are looking out for. Possibly more if Optic Nuritis (ON) and if not all of your brain lesions enhanced, then those could also be counted as objective clinical evidence of other attacks.  
    
MS in my humble opinion, unfortunately MS would be at the top of your list of possible's, so getting in to see a neurologist in the country your residing, (preferably one that specialises in MS) is most important. Its also possible, now that you've had the MRI's, the Brazilian neuro if you send him copies, may be willing to confirm his suspicion of MS now, might be worth finding out.
        
Hugs.........JJ

[supermum_ms]

Sorry i thought i'd given you a link for the Mcdonald Criteria, here is the one I have in my files......
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.22366/full

Part 2:  the Vit D treatment for MS

Beware of any treatments that indicate or imply there is a 'cure' for MS!

There is a big, big difference between scientific/research based evidence and anecdotal based evidence. If you google MS cure you will find there have been many 'cures' and none of them have been able to be scientifically proven, so its very important to keep an open mind and not buy into theories that profess incredible stats.

I'm an Ozzie so was quite interested and looked into this site http://mscure.aussieblogs.com.au/ BUT the first line already had my red flag flapping, its just too good to be true and generally when 100% is being claimed for anything, it means the claim is impossible.

It states "MS Cure
Vitamin D has already cleared 100% of lesions from over 1,000 MS patients in Brazil"

Its goes on to say......"It is confirmed that Vitamin D Effectively Clears all lesions and erases many of the sequels from autoimmune disorders such as MS, Lupus, Vitiligo, Fibromyalgia,Alzheimer, Autism, Chron’s, Guillain-Barre, Hashimoto, Parkinson, Arthritis, Psoriasis, and  many others. Currently many patients have a normal level of quality of life after treating with D3 vitamin."

I can't believe Vit D is the cure for ALL these different conditions, and I hope you seriously consider looking into all the research before you believe claims like these, which from my perspective are not credible.

Cheers.......JJ      

[SarahL2491]

Vit D is important to everyone, not only MS pts.  My doctor automatically checks me for it and I've been on supplements for it for years and my levels are fine.  

JJ is right, a vitamin CANNOT erase an autoimmune disease that affects nerve coatings.  It is NOT capable of clearing lesions.  Lesions can, however, disappear on their own, becoming invisible, but they are still there.

Think about it, if Vit E could do these things, the National MS society would be screaming it from the rooftops!  

Just my opinion, and going back under my rock for a nap!

[gmac353]

Hi!
Many many thanks for you very detailed response!
I had the MRI scans when I was in the middle of my last attack (that started after I found out about the optical neuritis and got really depressed with the MS possibility).
I think it was a good moment to have the MRIs as the lesions were still active!

Thank you,
G

[gmac353]

Hi again,

Just commenting about your second comment.
You are write, I didn't read carefully the link that was on the video, but the word "cure" used there is misleading.
Dr Cicero himself never uses this word... he clearly states that it's not the cure and the patient need to follow the treatment for life in order to keep MS under control.

Again the part that says it cleared 100% of lesions is not correct.
This can be explained by the first bit of the video I posted, where you can hear Dr Cicero explaining how the MRI scans CAN look like after a while on the treatment... but it's not guaranteed as depends of many facts.
I keep in touch with many of his patients on the facebook group as I said before and I know that for many of them the lesions did disappeared and the recovered skills that they had lost already. For example, people that were in the weelchair and are not anymore, people that were blind from 1 eye and can now see again, etc..
These people post their MRI Scans and pictures of themselves to show their results as they are very excited with that.
But as mentioned, it depends on many things in order to get different level of results with the treatment and a main one would be stage of the decease. A patient that has MS for 20 years is less likely that will recover as well as a patient recently diagnosed and younger.

And again, Vitamin D doesn't cure the autoimmune deceases... but from using it according to Dr Cicero's protocol it will stop the progress of it as it regulates your immune system avoiding it to attack your own body. There are many publications around that and you can found it easily on internet too.

Again there are many studies that show the myelyn being reconstructed.. our body can indeed to reconstruct the myelyn previously attacked by MS. This is not achieve only by using Vitamin D but also different vitamins, minerals and omega 3 (DHA) in the right doses as stated before too...

Regards,

[gmac353]

You are free to believe on whatever you want, obviously! So am I!
Have you seens someone avoiding weelchair by using interferons? I have never... and I did see it happening with patients following Dr Cicero's protocol with high doses of vitamin D.

"Think about it, if Vit E could do these things, the National MS society would be screaming it from the rooftops! "

Believe me, the interferons generate billion dollars profit for this industry every year. Most of the researches around MS are sponsored by these labs... they just don't want to lose their money.
Again, it requires a 20+ years research with a wide (thousands) audience in order to be announced globally... what is not fair as Vitamin D is not a medicine.. if you prefer to wait and see that's your call!
I rather start it now as I can see the results happening by talking to the patients...

The Vitamin D levels are discussed differently, countries say that a different value is considered right, t's not properly defined yet... so your doctor saying your level of vitamin D is OK is not enough to think you don't need it.

And again, the treatment is not about getting your level of vitamin D to the standar level, but having it higher... that's the point where the studies identified that your boddy starts to react to the decease.

Thanks and all the best,