Can brain lesions be misdiagnosed?

Preventing Misdiagnosis of Brain Lesions

Brain imaging is complex and many lesions can look almost the same - while representing different entities. The radiologist typically works closely with the patient's physicians to make sure the latter has the best information to make their care decisions with their patient.

Can MS lesions be mistaken for something else?

A wide range of conditions can be mistaken for MS, including: migraine, cerebral small vessel disease, fibromyalgia, functional neurological disorders, and neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders, along with uncommon inflammatory, infectious and metabolic conditions (1, 3).

Can you have brain lesions for no reason?

Brain lesions can be caused by injury, infection, exposure to certain chemicals, problems with the immune system, and more. Typically, their cause is unknown.

Can lesions on the brain be something other than MS?

Brain lesions can happen with any condition or circumstance that can damage your brain. Medical conditions that can cause brain lesions include: Brain tumors (including cancer).

What does it mean if an MRI shows lesions on the brain?

Brain lesions seen on MRI may indicate any number of possible conditions. Here the brain lesion depicts tissue damage from an ischemic stroke — a state of severely reduced blood flow to the brain, which deprives brain cells of vital oxygen and nutrients.

Daniel Ontaneda, MD, PhD: How Multiple Sclerosis Can Be Misdiagnosed

Are brain lesions something to worry about?

A brain lesion may involve small to large areas of your brain, and the severity of the underlying condition may range from relatively minor to life-threatening.

Can an MRI tell if a lesion is cancerous?

Using MRI, doctors can sometimes tell if a tumor is or isn't cancer. MRI can also be used to look for signs that cancer may have metastasized (spread) from where it started to another part of the body. MRI images can also help doctors plan treatment such as surgery or radiation therapy.

What neurological disorders mimic MS?

These include fibromyalgia and vitamin B12 deficiency, muscular dystrophy (MD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), migraine, hypo-thyroidism, hypertension, Beçhets, Arnold-Chiari deformity, and mitochondrial disorders, although your neurologist can usually rule them out quite easily.

Do lesions always mean MS?

While it is true that almost all people with MS will have evidence of brain lesions on MRI, not all people with brain lesions have MS.

Can some brain lesions be harmless?

Brain lesions are areas of abnormal tissue that have been damaged due to injury or disease, which can range from being relatively harmless to life-threatening.

What else causes lesions on the brain?

Bleeding in the brain can cause a hemorrhagic lesion. These lesions are more life-threatening than non-hemorrhagic lesions. A number of problems can lead to hemorrhagic lesions, including a bleeding vascular malformation, hemorrhagic conversion of an ischemic stroke, brain tumors that bleed, and head trauma.

What conditions cause brain lesions?

What is the most common brain lesion?

Meningioma is the most common primary brain tumor, accounting for more than 30% of all brain tumors. Meningiomas originate in the meninges, the outer three layers of tissue that cover and protect the brain just under the skull. Women are diagnosed with meningiomas more often than men.

What mimics MS on MRI?

Hypoxic-ischemic vasculopathy, specially small-vessel disease, inflammatory disorders, vasculitis, and non-MS idiopathic inflammatory disorders, as well as some toxic, metabolic, and infectious disorders, may present mimicking MS on MR examinations and should be included in the differential diagnosis of MS-like lesions ...

How quickly do lesions appear in MS?

Most symptoms develop abruptly, within hours or days. These attacks or relapses of MS typically reach their peak within a few days at most and then resolve slowly over the next several days or weeks so that a typical relapse will be symptomatic for about eight weeks from onset to recovery. Resolution is often complete.

Where is the most common place for MS lesions?

Lesions may be observed anywhere in the CNS white matter, including the supratentorium, infratentorium, and spinal cord; however, more typical locations for MS lesions include the periventricular white matter, brainstem, cerebellum, and spinal cord.

How many brain lesions indicate MS?

For the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, there should be at least one typical multiple sclerosis lesion in at least two characteristic regions [periventricular (abutting the lateral ventricles), juxtacortical/cortical, infratentorial, spinal cord] to support dissemination in space (Thompson et al., 2018).

Where do MS lesions show up first?

Signs and Symptoms

Characteristic lesions are located in the periventricular and juxtacortical regions, in addition to the brainstem, cerebellum, spinal cord, and optic nerve.

Can a neurologist tell if you have MS?

MS is diagnosed by your neurologist. They will use a specific checklist to diagnose MS, known as the McDonald criteria. They'll carry out a number of tests to run through the criteria, which could include blood tests and MRI.

How do you rule out MS?

There are no specific tests for MS . Instead, a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis often relies on ruling out other conditions that might produce similar signs and symptoms, known as a differential diagnosis. Your doctor is likely to start with a thorough medical history and examination.

What disease is similar to multiple sclerosis?

Fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia and MS have some similar symptoms, including headaches, joint and muscle pain, numbness and tingling of extremities, memory problems, and fatigue. Like MS, fibromyalgia is more common in women than in men.

How do you tell if a lesion is benign or malignant?

A benign tumor has distinct, smooth, regular borders. A malignant tumor has irregular borders and grows faster than a benign tumor. A malignant tumor can also spread to other parts of your body. A benign tumor can become quite large, but it will not invade nearby tissue or spread to other parts of your body.

What test determines if a lesion is malignant?

Biopsy. In most cases, doctors need to do a biopsy to be certain that you have cancer. A biopsy is a procedure in which the doctor removes a sample of abnormal tissue. A pathologist looks at the tissue under a microscope and runs other tests on the cells in the sample.

Can a tumor be mistaken for a lesion?

Tumor-mimicking lesions in the musculoskeletal system can be defined as lesions mistaken as tumors due to the presence of palpation upon physical examination or a tumor-like appearance upon radiological examination. Moreover, tumor-mimicking lesions show diverse etiologies and anatomic locations.