 |
Member
|
|
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 106
|
|
|
Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 106
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by the Bird
Brain atrophy....is this around your lesions? I'm confused. I don't want to look it up on the internet, just cause I don't want to know another bad thing that could happen!
Can they do anything for it?
What does this mean for you? sx wise?
|
Whoops--Didn't mean to scare anyone! 
No, actually it's tissue shrinkage. It shows up in a CAT scan as well as an MRI. Mine is frontal lobe atrophy--just a small bit of shrinkage in the very front of the brain. Elderly people can get this, as well as Alzheimer's patients. You can also get it from a brain trauma, such as a car accident.
Mine was found by accident during a routine CAT scan after I got bumped in the head with a football--at a softball game!
It wasn't a hard knock, and it didn't cause the atrophy, but since I am neither elderly nor Alzheimer-y, and since I've never had brain trauma, it led to my brain MRI, and spine MRI, and lumbar puncture, and all the other tests---and, thank heavens, a diagnosis.
Turns out that MS can cause it, as well as autoimmune illnesseses where there is vasculitis and the blood can't get to the brain properly. In fact, my PCP thinks my Crohn's caused it, while my neuro thinks that my MS caused it! From what they're saying, I'm leaning towards the MS, but it doesn't matter who dunnit, it's there! 
It seems to be a totally separate entity from lesions, and I don't believe lesion activity has anything to do with it--tho' I could be wrong.
Anyway, I didn't mean to scare anyone! I don't believe it's all that common, from what I'm reading--it certainly doesn't seem to be as common as lesions. So please don't worry about it! I was just wondering if anyone else had this manifest itself on their MRIs as well.
Perhaps one of our medical experts out there can write in and enlighten us more about it! 
|