MRI- what does this all mean?

[Rainey16]

I have chronic tertiary neurological Lyme disease and was diagnosed with Dystonia September of 2015. I had a MRI of the brain with and without contrast. I had two lesions on my brain with serial MRIs done around 2007. I can't see them like I could before but the impression seems to insinuate they are there. Will someone please tell me what this all means?  Mild amount of stable nonenhancing patchy increased signal within
the periventricular white matter on FLAIR and T2-weighted images located
adjacent to the anterior horns of both lateral ventricles, which is likely
secondary to ependymitis granularis, a normal variant. Minimal amount of spotty
increased signal within the bifrontal subcortical white matter on FLAIR and
T2-weighted images, a nonspecific finding which is likely secondary to minimal
ischemic white matter changes. Otherwise normal brain MRI without and with
contrast.

[Rainey16]

yes, it was very helpful. I have some medical training which makes me a terrible patient. I want to know what everything is on every report. My Lyme had been in remission for 8 years and that was the last time I had an MRI. they basically didn't worry about keeping an eye on my 2 lesions it you read I think you can see where they refer to them but I can't see them like I could when I had other MRIs in the past. diagnosing me was a long struggle of similar diagnosis's like MS which was finally ruled out by a lumbar puncture which diagnosed Lyme but then someone would read I had 2 lesions and be convinced it was MS and I would start it all again. I was just coming back to this unfortunately and I see a lot of changes , like MS and lyme are the same thing and all that. when they diagnosed me with Lyme I made a very good friend on a support site and I watched her progression with MS and regardless of the rumors and all she presented much different than I did. I don't think they are the same thing, she  progressed more physically and I neurologically. I wish you the best in your battle with MS, and thank you for sharing what you know with me.

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome,

Please keep in mind that this community is MS specific and the majority of our community will not be medical trained to interpret MRI's, we are lay people either diagnosed with MS or going through the process of and generally our MRI understandings will be based on our own personal MRI's and or personal interest in anything relating to MS....

I personally have only a peripheral understanding of Lyme disease because it's one of the alternative MS diagnosis and over the years there have been a lot of people visit with warnings relating to MS misdx.

From my understanding, various amounts of symmetrical or bilateral white matter changes are pretty common Lyme related MRI findings, although your MRI seems to indicate there are only very minimal white matter changes eg "Mild amount of stable nonenhancing patchy", "Minimal amount of spotty" other common terms we see for non specific white matter changes, that are usually very tiny (less than 1mm) would be 'popcorn or cluster.  

Basically ischemic white matter changes are associated with many different types of medical issues, eg migraine, hypertension, some mental health conditions, high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, Lyme, normal age related etc etc but when there isn't a moderate or severe degree it may not be significant or indicative of anything in particular.

Hope that helps........JJ
  

[Rainey16]

no it was from impression, I promise and Ischemia, also spelled as ischaemia or ischæmia [a] (/ɪˈskiːmiə/), is a restriction in blood supply to tissues, causing a shortage of oxygen and glucose needed for cellular metabolism (to keep tissue alive). Ischemia is generally caused by problems with blood vessels, with resultant damage to or dysfunction of tissue.

[immisceo]

What you've written appears to be from the "findings" section of the MRI report. The "impressions" section is usually written in much easier language for the layman to understand. "Ischemic" is related to blood flow and blood vessels.