What does this mean? (MRI Results)
 

Impression from the Brain Scan:
No acute intracranial abnormality is noted.
Multiple T2 and FLAIR hyperintense foci in bilateral periventricular white matter as described above likely consistent with demyelinating disease such as MS. No abnormal enhancement of these presumed demyelinating plaques is noted after administration of
intravenous gadolinium.

Impression From the Lumbar, Thoratic, and Cervical Scan (All read the same):
1. 2 areas of abnormal T2 signal hyperintensity without corresponding enhancement with the thoracic spine lesion expanding the cord mildly. These findings can be seen with the given history of multiple sclerosis, however they can also be seen in the
setting of transverse myelitis or ADEM, though less likely. Clinical correlation is recommended.

2. Focal T1/T2 hyperintensity in the thoracic spine likely representing hemangioma.

Hello chadntx and welcome to NeuroTalk.

Your Neurologist is the best person to explain your MRI results.

Your MRI results appear to support your diagnosis.

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease of the Central Nervous System (CNS), this includes the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves. Lesions can show up anywhere within the CNS.

Chad,

As was said above, the best person to ask is your neurologist. Any opinions you get from here are worth exactly what you paid for them. With that said, here is what I see in the results you posted. The "hyperintense foci" they describe is just a fancy word for a bright spot on the scan. Bright spots on those types of MRI scans can be evidence of some process that is removing the protective coating (myelin) from the surface of the nerve tissue in your brain and spine. That is called dymelination and MS is a disease that can cause demyelination in the brain and spine. There are other processes and diseases that can cause it too, which is why the radiologist recommends "clinical correlation", which is simply matching the possible causes to your symptoms and other test results to determine what might explain the bright spots in the brain (also sometimes called lesions or plaques). The "periventricular white matter" can be a common location for lesions to show up in MRIs for patients with MS, but other diseases can cause similar appearance, so it is important for your neurologist to explore all the possibilities and eliminate other possibilities before reaching the diagnosis of MS.

As for the discussion of enhancement, during the MRI, they injected you with gadolinium to act as a contrast in the scans. In cases where the lesion is "active" or currently in the process of being demyelinated, it will "enhance" or get even brighter with the addition of the contrast. The lack of enhancement simply means that the bright spots or lesions you have on your scans were not actively getting worse at the time of the MRI scan.

hello and welcome to NT,

i couldn't have said the answer better than snoopy and batman.

when you do see your neurologist ask for a copy of that visit's dictation.
start a medical file for yourself. those notes will be very informative and refresh your memory of the visit.

You can ask for a hard copy of your records, OR if you have one, take a thumb drive with you, and see if they'll just copy the records onto the thumb drive for you. Takes less time, and they don't have to print out the hard copy, potentially charging you for the paper, and the work of an office worker to do that.

Also, less to carry if you have a huge file.

In addition to the report, you may want to ask for a CD/DVD with the actual images. Various specialists may want to see the pictures for themselves and in the future your Drs may want to compare MRIs over time to get a better sense of how things are going.