MRI results; need help with deciphering
 

I know I have a PHD, but it is in Political Science and I can not decipher much of my report. I looked at the stick and was able to figure out a few things, but I could use some help. I am just going to paraphrase parts of the most recent one:

"There is a new lesion in the right frontl subcortical white matter. There is also a new lesion in the left periinsular region. There is also a new lesion in the left cerebellar hemisphere periventricular white matter. Remaining lesions within the supratentorial and infratentorial brain including lesions in the left tectum and also involving pons, appear stable. There is no acute infarction."

Then the report states that there is no active demyelination.

Also on my reprt from last may which I just receive it states," Foci of T2 and FLAIR signal abnormality in the left dorsal brainstem...

Can anyone help?:confused:

the only part I know off the top of my head is the "no active" part. I'm very familar with that phrase.

None of your new leisons showed up under contrast. I've never had any "active" leisons show up on an MRI.

Hope someone else can help with some of the other phrases. :hug:

I'm no radiologist, but I can help a little.
You have 3 new lesions showing
It looks like the previous lesions you had have not grown or shrunk - no change. Your pons is part of your brainstem.

This means there is no evidence of brain death/ stroke, etc. When reading a head MRI, they look for everything and anything, not just MS.

Like FinLady said this means that the lesions did not enhance with contrast.

Last scan the lesion in your brainstem was active.

Hope this helps and remember, it's just my interpretation.

what weeb said.
sounds good to me but i'm no dr.

remember tho that lesions may or may not be correlating to sx's and clinical exam. so if you're symptomatic you talk to your dr about tx.

and, if you're not taking any MS med you should talk to your dr about being on something IMHO. i happen to believe in being on a med but some folks don't.

also, if you're on a med it may not be working that well. i don't know. it's just a thought. so again, you should talk to your dr.

please keep us posted.

Thanks! I have been on betaseron, copaxone, and tysabri all in 18 months --had bad reactions or formed antibodies to all. I have seen my neuro and will be seeing a ms specialist in early January.

I thought I would try bumping this up to see if anyone had anymore insights. I was told last spring that my new lesions was not active, and there was some disagreement for awhile over whether I even had one.

Dittoing what Weeb said but adding . . .

An MRI is just a snap shot in time. MRI's are only as good as the tech doing the MRI and the radiologist reading the MRI as well as you (and your brain) at that particular time. This is why so many neurologists want to a) see the MRI themselves and b) don't diagnose strictly based on an MRI. It is not like a broken bone.

Our brains move around in fluid and sometimes catching the lesions can be difficult. Spinal lesions are even more difficult to find due to all the "things" in that compact space.

I have had MRI's where the lesions (big ones at that) don't show up. They are still there but for whatever reason on that particular day, they didn't want to be seen. LOL.

The goods on your current MRI is that there are NO active lesions. Congrats!

Does that help any?

"New" lesions simply means they didn't show up earlier.

If the new lesions were inflammed, they'd show up as "enhanced" with gad enhancement. Yours are not inflammed/enhanced, so they would not be considered "active", but are instead "plaque" (like scar tissue) or "old" (even if they are new since the last MRI).

Since you have 3 "new" lesions, that aren't enhanced, it seems to indicate that you had some new inflammation activity between the last MRI and this one. Sometimes we are aware of new activity because we have an outward attack, and other times we aren't because we have no new symptoms crop up.

Cherie