is this ms or normal aging

[emtp]

MRI conclusion states few punctate nonspecific foci increased T2 and flair signals in deep white matter in both frontal lobes

[Heather3418]

Welcome to the MS Forum.  I hope that you will let us know more about what kinds of symptoms you are having and why your doctor is doing the brain MRI.  If he is looking for signs of MS, I hope that he has included an MRI of your spine, using what they call, MS Protocol.  The MRI takes thinner slices of the brain, looking for those bright spots.  They will be sure to use the gadolinium dye, to see if any of those spots "higlight."

Again welcome.  We are anxious to hear YOUR story, as it helps us all learn more about MS and other mimics diseases.

All the Best,
Heather

[PastorDan]

Welcome to our world, emtp; make yourself at home.

Now, keep in mind that I've only been here myself for a few weeks, but I am obsessive about finding out what's wrong with my head.  Therefore, my comments are from a self-educated rank amateur, but one with a compulsion to learn everything possible about this disease.

If you should learn one thing about MS and MRI results, it is perhaps that there is no direct quantifiable relationship, only indicators, some of which might be somewhat stronger than others.  This is not to dismiss the huge help that MRI has been in diagnosis and in research regarding MS, but it is very possible to have MS with no abnormalities in the MRI, and to have multiple MRI spots, but no other signs of MS,

I suggest you browse the "Health Pages" accessible through the button toward the upper right of this page; it's the yellow one.  You will find a wealth of information there, most of it written in plain old English so you and I can make some sense out of it.  The one about MRIs and how they show lesions in MS would be a good place to start, especially with the question you brought here.

I also have "four punctate-to-small T2 hyperintensities in the deep and subcortical white matter.  These are of nonspecific etiology.  None of the lesions are periventricular."  

Translation:  I have several bright little dots on my brain when they scan it a certain way (T2), and nobody knows where they came from.  They're out in the main part of the brain somewhere, not right next to either of the ventricles.

This basically tells me that they don't know a lot more than they did before the MRI, but the radiologist called it abnormal, and my neurologist (whom I am in the midst of replacing, if all goes according to plan) dismissed these little dots as normal for a man in his 50s like me.

The one thing I'd add is that the people who have been frequenting this forum in my short time here are wonderfully caring, often quite knowledgeable in a wide variety of health-related topics, and quite diverse in location and in other ways.  You can't be here long without realizing that you've been adopted as a part of the family, which you will find reassuring.  You're never alone.

Peace.