This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

I was just diagnosed with MS after a lumbar puncture, MRI, blood work, and Eye exam. I have several lesions on my brain and i have numbness and tingling in my my legs, arms, and face. everything came back that I didn't have MS except for the lesions. I am scared how can they be sure that it is MS?

Angela1970 wrote:I was just diagnosed with MS after a lumbar puncture, MRI, blood work, and Eye exam. I have several lesions on my brain and i have numbness and tingling in my my legs, arms, and face. everything came back that I didn't have MS except for the lesions. I am scared how can they be sure that it is MS?

Welcome to ThisIsMS. Several different conditions can cause lesions which could contribute to numbness and tingling. An MS diagnosis is a process of elimination. One of the conditions that must be eliminated before an MS diagnosis is made is vitamin B12 deficiency. Did you have your B12 levels checked? In addition to B12, homocysteine and methylmalonic acid should also be tested as one or both can be elevated due to a deficiency in B12. Measuring these metabolites helps rule out false negatives, i.e., when the B12 result comes out normal, but is not being processed correctly in the body. Another problem is that the lower end of the "normal" scale for B12 used by many labs in the US is set too low, i.e., around 200 pg/mL. Japan, in contrast, uses a scale ranging from 500-1200 pg/mL. As such, the actual B12 result could indicate deficiency, but the lab may label someone as normal even though they're not.