Possible MS symptoms

[soconnor1318]

Hello, I am an eighteen year old who has been dealing with a variety of health issues for the last four or five months now. In January, I went to see my doctor with chest pain and tightness. After ordering an echocardiogram, small abnormalities were detected in my heart. I was then sent to take a stress test, where I was pulled off the treadmill with tachycardia after less than a minute of brisk walking. I was told to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist, who could not get me in for over a month. During this time, I would have sharp chest pain, as well as pain, tingling, and weakness down my left arm. Before I could make it to the cardiologist, I was taken to the emergency room when the left side of my body when completely numb. The emergency room ran a variety of tests, and with no reason for concern, I was discharged. After this incident, I saw the cardiologist, who put me on a low dose of a betablocker, and redid the stress test. The stress test checked out, and he has referred me to a cardiologist that specializes in the electrical pulses in the heart. During the last six weeks or so, I have had less frequent chest pain, but more pain and tingling in my left arm. I have also found that occasionally, I will have vision issues and it will be difficult for me to move my arms. This never lasts more than fifteen or twenty seconds. I have also been very fatigued. My parents have been very active in my medical care, and after some research, they think that my symptoms might point towards MS. What do you guys think? I see the electrical cardiologist on Thursday, should I bring MS up?

[NHE]

Hi soconnor,
Welcome to ThisIsMS. I will risk sounding like a broken record in order to ask if you have had your vitamin B12 levels checked? A complete B12 assessment includes tests for red blood cell folate, homocysteine and methylmalonic acid in addition to B12. Low B12 and/or low folate can cause homocysteine levels to be elevated. Homocysteine is a cardiotoxic aminoacid that can cause a variety of symptoms such as elevated blood pressure, irregular heart beat, increased risk of stroke and heart attack. Your story sounds similar to mine. I also saw a cardiologist who wanted to put me on a beta blocker because I had chest pain and an irregular heart beat. I didn't take the beta blocker due to some of the side effects. However, two years later I had what was initially thought to be a bad MS attack where I had temporarily lost the ability to move my legs. Instead, it turned out to be due to a folate deficiency that had driven down my B12 levels over time (methylfolate recycles B12 back to the active methylcobalamin form). I had a 7 cm lesion on my cervical spinal cord consistent with subacute combined degeneration (which is spinal cord demyelination due to low B12). Since correcting my low B12 and folate, nearly all of my cardiovascular symptoms have gone away except for an occasional bout of high blood pressure. It's worthwhile to get your B12, homocysteine and folate levels checked even if they turn out to be OK. It would be criminal to overlook such a simple diagnosis and let your problems progress like mine did. Note that there is some disagreement over what is an acceptable level of B12. For anyone experiencing neurological symptoms, you'll want B12 to be 500-1000 pg/mL. Note that homocysteine should be 4-12 µmol/L though one medical group in my area wants to see it less than 9 µmol/L due to its cardiotoxicity.

[Snoopy]

Hi soconnor1318,

What sort of vision problems are you having? have you been to an Ophthalmologist to evaluate your vision? If not please do so.

My parents have been very active in my medical care, and after some research, they think that my symptoms might point towards MS.

I think your parents shouldn't be researching your symptoms online...just an opinion. There is no symptom(s) that is exclusive to MS. Many other conditions, some medications, vitamin/mineral deficiencies and mental health problems all cause similar symptoms as MS. All of those other things also overlap one another. Anytime someone puts symptoms into a search feature and those symptoms are a possible neurological symptomsMS will come up as a possibility. However, this does not make it MS.

There is a diagnostic criteria for Multiple Sclerosis (The Revised McDonald Criteria). Part of the criteria is to rule out all other possibilities and testing for MS needs to indicate it as such.

Information on some of the other conditions that would need to be ruled out:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Sympto ... o-Rule-Out

Information on diagnosing Multiple Sclerosis:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Sympto ... gnosing-MS

My personal opinion is to not mention MS at this time.

[soconnor1318]

Thank you for your replies! I visited the cardiologist today and was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia, which will be treated with a cardiac ablation. Thank you for all you do for people living with MS, your support is invaluable!