How many people here have had a negative MRI but had MS. My eye doctor and MD believes I have MS and I do have a lot of the symptoms but I have been tested for just about everything else. One neuro believes it is MG. I do not know what I have but it is something. I just want the right treatment. I have had a negative MRI for MS. I was told that you can have negative MRI but still have lesions but they not showed up on MRI yet. So I was wondering how many people here have negative MRI for MS only for it to show up on MRI later and how much later. Thank you Shirley

Hello Sham,

It is possible to have MS but no evidence on MRI. For some, it can take time for MRI evidence and if you have MS sooner or later there will be MRI evidence of the disease.

However, the more years that go by and MRIs continue to be negative the less likely MS becomes. There are other tests, if positive, that can be taken into consideration for a diagnosis of MS.

There is a criteria for diagnosing MS, the McDonald Criteria.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3084507/

I was given a definite diagnosis of MS with a clear MRI.

However, I had what I refer to as the "perfect storm." I was in the middle of a severe exacerbation (relapse, attack, flare-up), positive Lumbar Puncture (LP) and a Neurological exam that I completely failed.

I don't know when lesions first appeared because I never had another MRI until 20 years after diagnosis.

Best wishes!

Was it a Neurologist or a Radiologist that read your scan?

The Radiologist who read my first scan said I was perfectly normal. The Neurologist who I saw a year later read that same scan and diagnosed me with MS, he is of the opinion that the Radiologist didn't look at my scan.

My co-worker's husband has been diagnosed with MS despite the negative MRI and LP he has all the classic early onset symptoms including a few days of blidness in one eye that cleared up after steroid infusion treatment. They are taking a wait to treat approach with him because of the negative MRI.