MRI Series Completed Yesterday – October 2nd 2008
MRI 1 Comment »Yesterday I went in again for another series of MRI studies. These scans are designed to accomplish a number of objectives:
- MRI w/o Contrast – this type of MRI is a simple MRI without the contrast agent. They wanted another series because the first series didn’t include a set without contrast, only with.
- MRI Spect – this is what is called a perfusion test. It is the best way to try and determine the grade of the tumor via imaging. If we can determine, based on this study, that we believe with some certainty this tumor has gone through malignant transformation then we’ll come up with a strategy right off the bat (and we’ll be armed with the info today for consideration) as to how aggressive we want to be in terms of resection of the tumor. My guess is this has moved toward or is now a grade 4 tumor. Therefore, we will be more inclined to sacrafice neurological function on my left side than the last surgery (when it was stable, not growing and a grade 3), in spite of the fact I am neurologically in tact for the most part. Up-front info however is that I will experience weakness on the left with a pretty good resection. Some rehab will make me stronger so this is great news. I will know more this afternoon after my 2:30 with my Neurosurgeon – a big meeting indeed.
- Brainlab – this is a mapping scan that will be loaded into the neuronavigation system and will the surgery to operate with extreme precision. Since we now have the functional MRI capability available (explained below and I didn’t know this at the time I wrote the other post), they will fuse the brainlab data with the fMRI scans to create a complete map of the motor strip, tumor location and the relationship with motor function on my left side. Amazing. So, we have the best technology on our side.
Finally, here are scans. I realized coincidentally that I had a scan exactly one year ago on October 2nd, 2007. So here are two one year apart – the first scan is from yesterday and the second is from October 2007 as a comparison:
The primary differences here are the tumor is a) larger although it’s difficult to really tell and b) you can really see that the wall of the tumor is more defined. The report puts all of this in more perspective and I really don’t have time to get into the details – too much going on.
Finally, the sagital (profile) view is also interesting in that the tumor never has appeared in these slices of the scans and now it is, another indication that it has grown in size. Here is the sagital view:
That’s all. We’re doing ok. As I said – only human, ups and downs but for the most part working the problem – that is the focus. I’m not sure that I’ll post again before the surgery but as I said, my good friend Glen will post an update out here.
Marching on….
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