What Do My MRI Scan Test Results Indicate?
I have a fairly thick packet of test results, blood results, MRI results, etc, and I think it would be quite unwieldy to download them. Some are handwritten and almost illegible. I did not receive any paperwork from the ENT which is irritating considering that my ears and perhaps inner ear are the problem but I supposed I can request a copy of his results if need be. The MRI/radiology results are practically Greek to me but maybe not to you. If you think a particular test result(s) might be helpful, I can try to dig them out and put them in a .pdf form. I also have a disc showing the actual MRI(s) or at least some of them but I am not allowed to send that considering it's worth something like $10,000 and only able to be read by specific type of machinery though I could probably find a simpler typed version of those results maybe.
I forgot to add one important symptom in my write-up. I have NYSTAGMUS in addition the rest of my symptoms.
Read below.
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I will try to ease some of your concerns.
First of all I do not see any reason to think of MS. I think you have got the wrong information regarding MS diagnosis, it is not impossible to diagnose. An MRI shows changes in the brain of MS patients in over 90% of the cases. Since you have had several MRIs with contrast over the years I would say that that percentage would be even higher. So the MRIs alone are enough to make it extremely unlikely to have MS.
The other factor making MS unlikely is your age. MS is typically diagnose in 15-45 years old patients, average age is 29 in women. There are cases in older individuals than 45, but rare. So to have MS manifest itself in your sixties while not impossible would be extremely rare.
So combining your age with the normal MRIs I really think MS is the last thing that should be on your mind.
As for cholesteatoma....again the MRIs should have detected that (though CT scan is the imaging modality of choice for that). However even without MRIs your presentation doesn't correspond to cholesteatoma, the main symptoms in all cases in hearing loss in the affected ear. Dizziness can happen but is less common. So don't think that is the case either.
Judging from your description the most likely cause to me seems to be an inner ear issue like BPPV really. The fact that you suffer from anxiety and depression issues may have contributed in worsening the symptoms. I am not sure why you haven't tried (at least you don't mention to) something like meclizine used to alleviate vertigo.
Regarding what the neurologist has said about that T2 hyperintensity I am not sure what to make of it, since you say two MRIs of the spine were considered normal someone seems to be wrong in the interpretation. I would be more inclined to side with the radiologist since it is not one but two MRIs of the spine, so hard to think they missed something twice. However a spinal lesion wouldn't explain the vertigo you describe.
As for the MRIs I am not sure why you think you are not allowed to send them and why they are worth that much. Where I live and in most European countries MRI images are put on a CD or DVD which can be easily opened on any computer with the appropriate software, there are plenty of free software on the net, just search for a Dicom viewer (dicom is the type of file used to store images in medicine). So not that complicated. You can simply upload a disk image on some file sharing site and provide the download link.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.