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15635836 tn?1441897802

MRI translation

I am attempting to decipher my MRI report.  Any assistance would be appreciated. I am giving an outline of 3 separate MRI reports where I have concern and don't understand.  I was diagnosed with MS in 1996 and lived symptom free until January 2012 when I experience a major exacerbation causing temporary blindness in my right eye.  Since that time my health has not recovered.  The new symptoms that I have are extreme fatigue (sleep does not offer relief), mental breaks (where my brain pauses or stops and then have issues reconnecting events prior to the break to after the break, it's hard to explain), balance and walking issues, vision issues.  

Basically, within the text of the MRI report, does any of this data explain my symptoms?

January 3, 2012 MRI
Mild burden of subacute plaque in the supratentorial frontal and parietal white matter bilaterally, relatively sparing the temporal lobe and posterior fossa gyrus.

Flow void is seen within the vessels indicating patency.


April 15, 2013 MRI
Flow voids are identified bilaterally in the intracranial internal carotid arteries as well as basilar artery.
On the heavily T2W and FLAIR images a confluent 1.5 cm subcortical demyellinating plaque involving the left frontal lobe. Focal demyelinating plaques in the periventricular white matter and left external capsule.


April 2015 MRI
Mild T2w and FLAIR hyperintensities in the periventricular white matter are noted bilaterally involving the frontal and pairietal lobes.  Demyenlination of the corpus callosum.  Subcortical plaque involving the left parafalcine parietal lobe gyrus.
2 Responses
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1831849 tn?1383228392
Hi KRT - Welcome to the group.

I'm not a radiologist. In fact I'm not a doc of any kind :-) That said, I did a little digginng and the low voids seem to be perectely normal. They are related to blood flow, rather than nerves.

The other findings are a bit more difficult to sort out. Were any of these scans done with contrast, and if so was there any mention of enhancement? Is there a running lesion count from 1996 until now? Typically new symptoms = new lesions. The new lesions would be identified either by enhancing in the presence of a contrast agent, or by appearing for the first time in sequential MRI's.

I hope others chime in...

Kyle
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987762 tn?1671273328
COMMUNITY LEADER
Hi and welcome,

You asked "does any of this data explain my symptoms?" but unfortunately it's not simplistic to accurately match MRI lesions to all the different symptom combinations a person with MS can experience. The combination of symptoms you experience is unique to you because your neurons have basically been wired and rewired throughout your life, so two MSers might have an MRI showing lesions in basically the same locations but whether or not a lesion will be symptomatic is not something that can be scientifically predicted....

There have been some location within the nervous system that have more predictability for the types of symptoms the damage to that specific location will commonly cause, but keep in mind that a lot of symptoms are not specific to one specific lesion location eg spinal cord lesion can cause coordination/balance problems but so too can the Cerebrum, Cerebellum or brain stem.

It's usually better to focus more on treatment options for the specific problematic MS symptoms you experience, rather than which lesion is causing what symptom......this site http://www.msfocus.org/Symptoms-of-Multiple-Sclerosis.aspx is a good starting point for treatment option ideas and I hope it helps give you some direction...

Cheers.......JJ



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