Introduction
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is always indicated in multiple sclerosis (MS) because it is important to recognize the lesions and thus to be able to assess the severity of the disease. An MRI is a magnetic resonance imaging, which is mainly used to assess soft structures such as muscles, fat or for example brain matter. In the case of multiple sclerosis (MS) it is important to have an MRI because it reveals the areas where the myelin sheaths are destroyed due to the disease and thus an inflammatory process (inflammation) has formed. These inflammatory processes are called lesions. The more lesions a patient has, the more severe (progressive) the disease is.
Diagnosis MS in the MRT
MRI is used to diagnose multiple sclerosis (MS). In order to be able to make the diagnosis of MS, the MRI is usually the last but also a very important means of choice. Beforehand, a neurologist will have a long conversation with the patient (anamnesis) and then various neurological examinations will be performed to rule out the possibility that the diagnosis is different from MS. In addition, blood and/or cerebrospinal fluid is taken from the patient. All these tests may indicate MS, but a reliable diagnosis can best be made with the help of an MRI, as the lesions in the brain are best visible in the MRI.
Early stage
In addition, MRI is also considered very helpful in the early stages of MS as it detects almost all patients with MS, which is not always the case with neurological examinations or CSF puncture. Thus, MRI is very important in diagnosing the early stages of MS. In the early stages or initial stages of multiple sclerosis (MS), individual nerve fibers lose their protective sheath, the so-called myelin.
This leads to an inflammatory process, which in turn attracts various messenger substances. These inflammatory processes, which lead to an exposure of the central nerves, cause so-called lesions in the brain (later also in the spinal cord), which can then be detected by MRI. In the early stages, multiple sclerosis (MS) is therefore mainly detectable by MRI, while symptoms in this stage are hardly ever present and if so, are only very unspecific.
Therefore, it is important to have an MRI scan taken if multiple sclerosis is suspected, as there are no noticeably high inflammatory parameters in the CSF or blood that could indicate the disease. Also the neurological examination is usually rather inconspicuous and could also be caused by a harmless reflex increase. Although the MRI examination is not necessarily one hundred percent certain, it nevertheless offers the best chance of diagnosing MS in its early stages, since the lesions in the brain (and possibly also in the spinal cord) also occur in other diseases or in degeneration symptoms, but together with the mild initial symptoms (early stage) they are a very important indication for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
