Red Lawhern
Message 1 of 1
One of the respondents to this thread of discussion asked "could an MRI reveal a brain injury that occurred years back?" The answer to this question is a qualified yes: depending on the nature of the structural damage, MRI can reveal fluid-filled gaps, arterio-venous malformations (AVMs), tumors, aneurisms, almost any strucure that is different in density from surrounding tissue. What you probably won't know is how long the problem has been developing, or whether it might trace to any specific "event." Note: not all MRI's or MRI technicians are created equal. Technique for contrast enhancement and print comparison can be important in some diagnoses. Likewise, some problems such as microvascular compression need to be examined at the higher resolution provided by "thin slice" MRI. This is a different processing of the same machine data, not a procedure on a different machine. But this processing may not occur automatically unless it is specifically requested by the referring physician. Please note: I am a patient, not a physician. My familiarity with some of these issues is based on interaction with neurology patients, and research.