can anybody shed some light on this disorder and the proper way to diagnose it?
i started having various neuro symptoms in july,
tremors,myclonic jerks, chorea,weakness in hands,difficulty with speech , ringing in my ears, and whooshing noises as well...and now leg weakness....
the symptoms come and go, and get aggravated by stress or when i'm more tired at the end of the day.
i have undergone months of testing. first blood work, then the cervical spine,eeg no diagnosis-a few lesions here or there.
they did a test for huntingtons disease that was negative, so i requested a full spine mri. the neurologist said they found two cysts on my liver, a nodule on my lungs, and what looks like a vascular malformation in my thoracic spine. i was then sent back for mri w/ contrast, which showed it again, so he requested an mra, which took the nurse a week to get approved as my hmo didn't want to cover it.after i got a mra, the nurse called to say i now needed act scan with contrast, and the insurance compnay wanted the radiologist present to make a decision as to if it is an artifact.he said it was, and therfore i'm back to square 1.
from what i've read, ct scans aren't the most accurate in diagnosing the thoracic region...is this true?i can't understand how something that showed up in three other tests is now an artifact..any insight?

Did they show you any of the "pictures" and explain the results to you?
I'd even ask for copies of the films/pictures - for future reference- or in case you want to have another dr read them.
What did the MRA show?? did you get a copy of the written report?
You can ask for all of those reports and records, most likely you will need to fill out a request form and maybe pay for the copied pages.

what does artifact mean in medical terms? {something old??}

[weakness in hands,difficulty with speech , ringing in my ears, and whooshing noises as well..]

I had all of those , still do sometimes - from RSI/TOS when my scalene and SCM {neck} muscles got very tight.
the whooshing might be a bruit - is it in time with your heart beat?

Many with thoracic outlet syndrome have vascular symptoms and some have nerve symptoms also.

here's our useful links & info thread about TOS-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=84

What kind of work do you do?
whiplash , or other accident, sports, falls?

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Great to see you have come to be with us. You will find a great number of caring, supporting members here willing to help each other as they can.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene