Can anyone clarify?
I have 28 symptoms of Ms. Nothing shows up in my blood work. Had a MRI and it says single focus of altered subcortical white matter signal within the left frontal lobe. My doctor said I would have lesions. To my understanding the results means lesions?
Hi,
! I am sorry you are experiencing so many symptoms and still have no diagnosis. Having altered subcortical white matter doesn't necessarily point to an MS diagnosis and your doctor would be the best person to discuss this with. *Generally*, you almost always have lesions with MS, but there are circumstances where lesions do not show up in MRIs and a person has MS. Also, physicians generally look for lesion activity in more than one area of the Central Nervous System to diagnose MS, but as I mentioned, there are always exceptions to the rule. Have you had a lumbar puncture procedure? It can be used to diagnose MS when other test results are inconclusive. You can read a bit about the procedure here -- https://multiplesclerosis.net/diagnosis/lumbar-puncture. Has your doctor offered you any kind of diagnosis? Has he/she offered any ideas of what route to choose next as far as seeking a diagnosis or treatment?
Best, Erin, MultipleSclerosis.net Team Member.My primary doctor is almost sure it's ms. Got the with/without contrast MRI and that was the results above. I had cat scans and tons of blood work and nothing explains any of what I'm going thew. All levels normal. It's just killing me waiting to know a positive result. I can't get out of my head. My uncle had it and suffered terribly so just worried.. Thank you for talking to me 😊
Does white matter means lesions?
white matter usually refers to the deeper tissues of the brain subcortical, which contain nerve fibers. Those fibers are surrounded by myelin, the covering of the nerve fibers. Myelin gives the white matter its color. Lesions are usually abnormalities that are found in the white matter. I found this really great article that does a deep dive in white matter lesions, giving much more context to what white matter is in general and the abnormalities that can exist within it. https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/what-are-white-matter-lesions-are-they-a-problem#:~:text=Abnormalities%20in%20white%20matter%2C%20known,matter%20deteriorates%20as%20people%20age. My apologies for the long URL. I hope this helps to answer your question. Kayleigh, MultipleSclerosis.net team
