Abdominal Mri For Nausea And Fever Showed Everything Normal But Splenic Artery. What Does That Mean?

Posted on Sat, 15 Jun 2013

Question: i had an abdominal mri for nausea and fever for 4 months. showed everything normal but it did say splenic artery has no flow per dopler. what does this mean? could this be causeing my problem? what kind of doc should i see if i need one.?

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (1 hour later)

Hello!

Thank you for the query.

MRI is a very good test, however it is not perfect for stomach and intestines diagnostics. Especially if it was done without oral contrast and previous intestines preparation.

Lac of blood flow in the spleen artery can be caused by thrombosis or compression by some lesion. Splenic artery is in close neighborhood with pancreas and stomach. Any pancreas lesion would be visible in MRI. But stomach issue can be invisible for MRI.

Nausea is very often caused by stomach problem or gallbladder inflammation/stones. Fever can be present with an inflammation or sometimes with a cancer.

I suggest you to visit gastroenterologist. Gastroscopy should be done. If you have any abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, weight loss, also colonoscopy should be considered.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Vaishalee Punj

Follow up: Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (1 hour later)

the mri was done with contrast . so are you saying it can be stomach cancer? so my primary was wrong when he said my mri was normal?

thank you

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (15 minutes later)

Hi,

Yes, there are chances that it can be stomach cancer. It definitely should be ruled out.

MRI can not be used to diagnose stomach diseases. It can be negative with stomach cancer. That is why gastroscopy should be done.

Hope this will help.
Regards,

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T