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Is there currently a type of machine that can locate lesions in the white and gray matter of MS patients?

I just had an MRI last week and it showed no lesions at all in my brain even though I have had a diagnosis based on symptoms of MS for over 35 years. The neurologist that my doctor called while I was in her office last week told her that if no lesions were showing up, it was not possible for me to have MS.

Twelve or thirteen years ago I had my first MRI which also showed no lesions from my head all the way down my spine. Now I am wondering if my lesions are all in the areas of the brain which do not show up on a regular MRI.

Are any of you in similar circumstances?

gwa

Hi GWA:

I'm not sure how relevant this is but I've had ppms since 1999. I've lost count of how many mri's I've had. The ms has progressed significantly but my mri's have never changed - at all! I have one lesion at c1/c2. I just had one on a brand new machine with a very strong magnetic field , no change. So, if the mri's are always the same there must be a process that does not show-up.

I suppose there could be things going on that are masked by the lesion but my neuro seemed to be scratching her head a little during a recent visit.

Mick

Dear gwa,

my neuro latetly also told me about a patient that does not have any lesions visible on MRI but has various MS symptoms.

My opinion is that the widely use (at least in germany) 1.5 Tesla MRI are not able to spot all lesions.

As the following article shows 8 Tesla MRI is very effective in spotting lesions in grey and white matter, even better than post mortem pathologic analysis.

http://www.ajnr.org/cgi/content/abstract/28/2/262

--Frank

Frank,

Thanks for posting this. I have marked it to show my doctor who was perplexed that nothing showed up on the MRI.

After reading so much about lesions hiding in the gray/white matter from the past year, it seemed to me that many cannot be detected with ordinary MRI machines.

The fact that I do not have any that jump off the screen is odd though after all these years.

I can appreciate more now those people who have a difficult time getting diagnosed. If they have no lesions showing up, doctors don't want to go out on a limb and tell them that they have MS.


gwa