Do ms plaques always show up on mri?

[Teri112]

I am a 43 yr old white female with a history of diabetes for 28+ yrs.  I have seen a neurologist for about 2 1/2 yrs.  I had a stroke and have been followed ever since.  I have trouble with speech, memory, balance, falling (2x), right arm and leg weakness, and lately my hand shakes especially when i find i am hot.  Cooling off seems to help. My EEG showed seizures frequently and i am now on medication.   Please understand this did not happen all at once.  It has been gradual.  My stroke was in the left brain stem and involves the cortico spinal fibers.. I have had 2 mris that have just shown the lesion with the stroke.  I was wondering if ms plaques show up on mri all the time?  I am being referred to a nuerologist at Univ Of Penn hospital.  Any info you can share would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[Teri112]

Thanks for the reply.  I'll be as short as I can.  My stroke left me with right arm weakness  (can't lift more than 3-5 lbs).  Plus I have a little droop to my left eyelid.  Stroke happened on my left brain stem so it was explained to me the left side of the brain controls the left side of face and then crosses to the rt side of the body.  Months after that I started having trouble with speech and memory.  Then the rt arm/rt leg weakness. I fell in that episode and mri was done and just showed original lesion.  Followed this with an EEG and found frequent seizures were occuring.  I was put on seizure medicine and still hasn't sold my speech memory problem  The shaking of my hands just started recently.

My BP is good.  Believe it or not ( I couldn't make this up) my stroke occurred April 06 and in September 06 I had aheart attack and quadruple bypass.  My BP has been fine.

My neuro thought these were stroke related until the results of the EEG.

Now he's sending me to Univ of Penn to see another neuro who specializes in cognitive and other more specialized neuro problems.

To be honest, I asked my neuro at this point maybe I should be seeing a psychiatrist.  I feel like I'm going crazy.  I'm lucky my neuro is a good guy.

Any thoughts please let me know
Teri

[biowham]

Hi, Teri--

Yes, the MRI can miss lesions, either because of too-low magnet strength or slices that are too thick. That said, heat can exacerbate neural-related problems, even without there being MS.  What were the sequelae of your stroke in terms of disability? Are these symptoms you describe new, arising sometime after the stroke, or does your neuro think they are stroke related? How has your BP been since your stroke?

Bio

[Teri112]

My son also age 13 has diabetes.  He has since he was 2.  Hopefully, he won't go down the same path.
Thanks for the reply and it's something I'll keep in mind to ask the dr.

[Amyloo]

Hi Teri,

The short answer is no, they don't.  I am sorry for what you are going through, and am glad you will be seeing another neuro.  Hopefullly they can do MRI's of your c spine and t spine as well.

My 13 year old is a diabetic too.  Has been since age six.  I feel for you in this area, even though I am an "outsider looking in" on the disease.  God bless you, Amy