I had an MRI of the brain in 1996 with
abnormal white matter lesions and another
one in 2005 with even more white matter
lesions and am now supposed to have a
lumbar puncture next week. The only
symptom I seem to have is some
incoordination of my 4th and 5th fingers
on my left hand which makes it very hard
to do my job as a medical transcritionist,
which is why I had the MRI of the brain in
2005. The first MRI was done for a severe
headache I got postoperatively. I do not
have high blood pressure nor migraine
headaches. I am quite tired all the time
but have thought it was from narcotic pain
meds for the chronic back pain. What is
wrong with me? What are these lesions.
They are nonspecific and scattered in the
white matter. Are these lesions going to
replace healthy brain, cause dementia?
Although your medical examinations are not
finished yet, white matter lesions in the
brain direct us to a possible case of
multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosisis
an autoimmune disease where the immune
system attacks its own structures (in this
disease - the immune system attacks the
myelin coverings of the nerve tracts in
the brain). Lesions can appear any time,
any place on the brain’s white matter
(nerve tracts). Symptoms depend on the
lesions’ localization. Symptoms become
easier but do not disappear over
timebecause lesions do repair, but not
completely. Multiple sclerosis is a
progressive disease because new lesions
appear and the old ones don’t recover
completely. A lumbar puncture is necessary
for proper diagnosis because anty-myelin
antibodies must first be detected in the
spinal fluid. If multiple sclerosis is
proved (and the antibodies are found), you
would need therapy for slowing down the
process( corticosteroids).
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