?'s about lesions

[LilStep]

I have multiple lesions on brain and not a single one on my spine. My last MRI showed no new or enhanced lesions. This was a month ago.

Ok, now how is it possible to have no active,new or enhanced lesions; however I have had new symptoms since and before MRI. I just don't understand at all. I mean don't get me wrong, I am greatful for a good MRI result but I'm just trying to make sense of all this.

I thought if you have new symptoms(relapse,exacerbation) then it meant your lesions were active. Could it be that the MRI just isn't picking up these new or enhanced lesions?

Sorry, if I sound totally dumb. I've even tried reading about lesions to understand how all this works, but I still can't comprehend it.

Is there someone out there who can help me to understand?

[hunterd]

I am not a Dr., nor do I pretend that my answers are always correct. But I can tell you that years ago I was having new symptoms (flare?), But my MRI showed nothing was enhanced. I don't know if that helped you any or not, but I just wanted to pass that along.

[CGMoonbeam]

I believe Neurology Now magazine had an article on this. Many symptoms may occur before there's a lesion. Brain lesions tend to show in cognitive ways while spinal lesions show in more physical ways, especially with walking. Neurology Now is a free publication if you go to the website.

[jbell2435]

Good question!

I'm very new to this too, so I'm no expert, but I like the question.

From what I've been told from my neuro, the lesions that are not active, could be from a few days ago or years ago, there is no way for them to know how long w/o comparison MRI's.

I will be going in for 1 year follow-up MRI's in September, so it will be interesting to see what has happened. I had brain, cervical, and thoracic MRI's and had lesions on cervical and brain originially, none on thoracic....then had 'hug' sx in Nov/Dec and they did another MRI of thoracic and there was a small (dim?) lesion.

It is possible for new lesions to not even show up on the MRI's I believe I read that somewhere (Neuro Today?).

Still, I'm interested in seeing the results of the next set just for comparison.

[jifr]

Hi Lilstep:

How strong was the MRI machine?

Some lesions are too small to be seen by an MRI. Still, some lesions are better imaged on stronger machines. So, it is possible something IS there...but just can't be seen.

I hate that feeling of "knowing" something's wrong and there's no "proof" (so to speak) to back it up.

:-/. Hope you're feeling better.

[LilStep]

Thanks for all the replies. This has helped tremendously.

I was discussing this with my DH and he replied, "Remember, neuro said, "Even though MRI shows no new or enhanced lesions, she is worried about the ones that are too deep in the brain and can't be seen."

Well, duh...didn't remember her saying that. (My MS Cog Fog). Anyway, that is why my husband goes to every appt. with me.

So, the reason she even made that statement was because I was actually thinking of going off DMD of a while. But, neuro bought me back to reality. Thank God, I didn't stop my DMD because I have been having several new symptoms and have been in a flair. Can't even begin to imagine how I would be now if I had stopped.

Thanks again everyone for your replies. Hope everyone is doing well today.