Past MRI's...questions

[amyrising]

I have been looking over some past MRI's from last year and of course I have no idea what they mean. Is there a sticky for MS related key words, or something that can help me make sense of them. I see nothing that points to lesions in my spinal MRI's. I see everything else, lol. Things like
[*]bulging discs [*]bright hemangioma in T2[*]mild uncovertebral joint disease [*]Grade 2 anterolisthesis of L5 on S1 measures 9 mm [*]bilateral L5 spondylolysis [*]Grade 2 anterolisthesis of L5 on S1.

Does anyone know what any of these things mean?

[MSer102]

amy the terms you listed are all about your spine/skeleton and not at all about MS. If you google each term you can get not only definitions and explanations but sometimes also drawings or Xray/MRI pictures of what everything looks like so you can really picture what's going on. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Anything that's wrong with your spine can cause neurological symptoms in your body below where the problem is. But they won't cause problems in functions that occur only in your head like vision, hearing and thinking. For that you have to look at the reports for your brain MRI's and see what terms are used there.

Your brain report might use words like hyperintensity, hypointensity and maybe abnormality. It might or might not use the word "lesion". "Lesion" isn't a special MS term. It just means "something" that isn't normally there. It will mention what kind of MRI program (sequence) was used that shows the abnormality (like T1, T2, FLAIR). When used that way those terms are not referring to your first or second thoracic vertebra in your spine or mean that you are having a flare (not flair) of MS.

The report will say what area of the brain an abnormality is found in and give some idea of how many abnormailities are found and what size they are.

For all of your MRI's there should be a section about "interpretation" or "indication" that tells what kinds of conditions are suggested by what the MRI shows. There should be an interpretation section that tells what those terms about your skeleton/spine indicate and there should be the same section that tells what the finding on your brain MRI might indicate.

It sounds like your spinal MRI's don't say anything about problems inside your spinal cord so if you want to know about MS you'll have to look at you brain MRI's. If you tell us what your brain report says somebody can help you with what it shows if you haven't already googled the terms.

Speaking of a picture being worth a thousand words, there is a website called "Radiology Assistant" that has a section about MS and MRI's. It has great pictures to show what MS lesions usually look like and compares to some other conditions that share the same signs and symptoms as MS (because they're also neurological diseases). It also covers the McDonald diagnostic criteria for MS. I hope you find it as educational as I did.
http://www.radiologyassistant.nl/en/...a459bf2fc34950

[amyrising]

Thank you, I will check it out.

[AMJ]

That's a great link MSer102.
Thanks for sharing it.

[Strhuntrss]

MRI's

MSer102,

Thank you for sharing that link. It was most informative and the pics of the MRI's gave us an idea what we are seeing.

I have learned that every radiologist reads things differently.

So, in my case a second opinion served helpful.

And don't be afraid to ask your neuro to show you what he is looking at and have him explain it.

Our dr's are there to help us help ourselves and the more we can understand what is happening to us, the more we can help ourselves.

Thanks again MSer!