I had a MRI of my brain some time ago. The neurologist reviewed the results and said that I was having migraine headaches. Last night I reread the MRI report - findings - several ischemic changes in the left cerebrum. I take this to mean that I have had some micro bleeds in that area of the brain. So what does that area control - speech, logic, sequencing, memory, analytical reasoning - all things that I have considered to be brain fog. I used to get terrible headaches (I guess these were migraines but I didn't realize it) when I tried to force myself to continue to use the computer when my eyes were too far gone to really focus. I don't get them so much anymore and when I do I take relpax - and that knocks the headaches out. I guess that proves that they are migraines. My questions are these:
Can anyone tell me the following:
Are the migraines caused by inflammation?
When I get the headaches am I at risk for more ischemic changes (I have a feeling that that means little blood vessel leakage)?
Should I get further evaluation on this?
Can the ischemic changes (dammage) caused by the micro bleeds be reversed?
I am planning to visit the neurologist again since now I realize that she still has some explaining to do. I am hopeful that since I have finally realized what those tests show (or at least that I need some more answers) that this may be a sign that my brain is coming back to life. In any event, someone else out there may have had the same finding and can explain this - if not you may also ask some more questions of your neurologists.
Tuckerdog
tuckerdog, The word ischemia refers to an interruption in flow of blood for various reasons. This does not mean that you are leaking blood or bleeding into your brain tissue.
When you have migraines (if I remember correctly) you will have expansion of the blood vessels but the vessels do not bleed. Ischemia is a word that you hear used more often in regards to the heart arteries. People speak of coronary ischemia which means that the vessels and circulation are interferred with by the hardening of the arteries. Also, ischemia can be caused by spasms in blood vessels. In no way does this mean that there is a bleed of any kind.
When you go see your neuro ask her about the ischemia and ask if it is related to inflammation. It may be that you will be in need of a DMARD drug which is the grouping of drugs used to reduce inflammation in autoimmune diseases. This included methotrexate, cellcept, imuran, etc.
Ask her specifically what she feels the ischemia is from. There can be other causes and often other types of medication can be used. Good luck. IRish ;D
Irish has pretty much covered it, as always, but I'd like to mention that the enlargement of the blood vessels in migraine can actually cause an interruption of blood supply to the tissues around them...they become so engorged that the surrounding tissue is compressed, and doesn't get adequate blood flow.
The actual functions affected by the ischemic areas would depend on the lobe of the brain thats affected...the cerebrum is the name given to the largest part of the brain, and each cerebrum is made up of four lobes, each with specialized functions: the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes. In addition to Irish's suggestion, you could also ask which lobe is involved.
Thanks so much for shedding some light on this. The report reads as follows:
"There are several T2 ischemic vascular changes in the white matter of the left cerebral hemisphere."
When I looked that area up it did correspond to exactly the difficulties I am experiencing.
I think that you are on target about inflammation. My eye specialist did say that eye strain would cause the muscles used to focus to swell and that would cause headaches because of inflammation in an area that can not tolerate inflammation.
I got the idea about the micro bleeds from searching on ischemic vascular changes brain. They mentioned the micro bleeds and impaired cognition.
If I am understanding what you wrote correctly the ischemic vascular changes were blood flow changes that were seen at the time of the MRI. Does that mean they can come and go and another MRI would not see them? I am not clear on how permanent the changes are. I guess my neurologist figured I was already brain dead and could not figure out what questions to ask.
Tuckerdog