Multiple Sclerosis and MRIs (again!)

I had an interesting experience the other day. I finally had an MRI of my head, neck and spine. I don’t really believe in MRIs for multiple sclerosis past the diagnosis. I heard a great lecture by a neurologist in the Dallas area who said for a number of reasons, MRIs may not be beneficial in ongoing treatment for multiple sclerosis:

- if you have MRIs on multiple machines, you are comparing apples to plums rather than comparing disease activity between different points in time
- MRIs may not be indicative of disease activity so you may have lots of lesions or spots but function fine and vice versa
- So you have more lesions and you have more functionality problems – this does not lead to any different treatment so why spend the money and have the MRI

However, I had an MRI a couple of weeks ago because I have good insurance and I had not had one for a couple of years. I thought my neurologist would probably enjoy it so I did it.

To my surprise the neurologist said no disease activity. Of course, I thought this was good but then I had to fall back on my beliefs that after diagnosis, the MRI really doesn’t mean much – no matter if it is good or bad news.