Help me understand my MRI report
 

I know basically it is OK, the neuro said it's fine but since I have never had the actual report in my hand before I have never seen some of this.

There are 5 to 6 scattered punctate areas of abnormality throughout the deep white matter including a subtle lesion in the pons.. There is some very minimal cerbellar atrophy along the cerebellar tonsils.

OK, what does this 'punctate' thing mean? I have just always known I have the one lesion in the pons.

punctate /punc·tate/ (punk´tāt) spotted; marked with points or punctures.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedic...y.com/punctate

Means that you have "holes" (might not be actual holes, but just abnormal spots in your white matter) in the area they imaged.

Did your neuro go over the MRI with you? (or is he planning to?)

Thanks Erin. Her office called and just said I had no changes and it was OK

I have seen that on my MRI reports, too. The neuro told me they are smaller and more round lesions as opposed to some of the larger ovoid ones they see.

MRI reports
 

I don't know about anyone else, but the docs seem to skirt explaining the MRIs. I was diagnosed in 02 and just this year a doc told me I had about 6 scattered lesions. I can remember watching the docs look at the films and basically say nothing, show me nothing and explaining absolutley nothing.
I really think they just need to see the spots......thats it.
They can't predict what they will do or when they will do it or if they will result in a problem at all. They can only tell that their are MS lesions and if they are active or not.
You can get a breakdown of parts of the brain and the skills performed in those areas....but then again, MS doesn't always make sense whether there is a lesion in a particular area or not!