Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Support Group
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OK, "Politically Incorrect Rhonda" is tempted to slip in a Don Imus joke. (Hey, I'm black, I can say that) :o) But let's talk about MRI "Black Holes". Almost two years ago, the knucklehead nurse "MS" practitioner (there's an oxymoron!) After reading my MRI told me that I had several black holes. My new "real" Neuro who's specialty and research area focuses on MS, after reading my MRI didn't mention any black holes and was skeptical about my ms dx until I told her about my initial sx's. After reading the following Q&A, it appears that black holes can resolve. Whaddaya think?
I was under the impression that black holes = permanent damage (hence disability)
http://www.healthtalk.com/multiplesclerosis/askthedoctor/062705.cfm
I was under the impression that black holes = permanent damage (hence disability)
http://www.healthtalk.com/multiplesclerosis/askthedoctor/062705.cfm
but found another web page that seems to explain it in more detail...if you go down the page past all the links then start reading..it explains it in much better detail hon..
hope this helps to answer the question..
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/3468/sp-disability.html#1
luv
heather
1. Acute Black Holes - Active Lesions on a T1 Scan that would enhance with Gd dye, show black on a T1 scan without Gd dye. So Acute Black holes are just active lesions.
2. Persistant black holes - Are area that show dark WITH the Gd Dye. If they were just active lesions they would have enhanced with Gd Dye & would have showed dark on a t1 Lesion without Dye. Inactive Lesions that show on a T2 scan, do not show at all in a T1 scan with Dye. They show on the T2 scan.
3. Chronic Black Holes are Persistant black holes that remain for more than 6 months, and are considered permenant.
Black holes do indicate a loss of brain tissue. But the brain has an amazing ability to 'reroute' around damage. You have seen or read about that in car accidents. Where amazing recoveries have happened after a terriffic accident. Those stories happen more often in the young when the brain is highly plastic & flexible.
The brains plasicity is the main reason there has never been a chart developed showing what damage a lesion causes.
I read the result of a year end study that had to report no success at year end in mapping lesion location to disability. The study found a lesion located somewhere may cause damage tempoararily but recovery happens. The response times where slower, this was attributed to the "extra" time the brain needed to re rout a signal.
Then the study found that a lesion could form in a location & something totally unexpected was affected. The study concluded that past "rerouting" had happened there, So a new lesion affected the re-routing.
I had a significant sized "Persistant Black" Hole on Diagnosis. That the doc nevere mentioned. The report just said 'extensive white matter damage'. I got the CD, it was extensive. There was an obvious black hole in my frontal lobe. The thinking lobe. I couldn't miss it, among all the enhancing lesions there.
An MRI done 3 years later it was gone.
I read a report stasting the results of a trial & it said how many black hole were reversed.
That's what got me curious about black holes. They can be reversed? That's when I started reading about them & found this.
Nurses are implimentor's, they are not doc. Unless she was comparing MRI at greater than 6 months, she wouldn't know if it was a Persistant(temporary) Black Hole or a Chronic(Perment) Black Hole. This you might have to get your MRI CD's and look for yourself or ask the doc. The nurses are implimenting treatment on a wide variety of diseases...with only 4-6 years of education on implementing care for the disease. They may get the exact details of the diseases confused. Not the practical; "care" of the disease but the details they probably don't have down totally. Or they would be issued a doc license instead of a nurses license.