Special MRI needed?

[mel07]

Hi again
Is a regular, garden-variety head MRI with contrast sufficient to exclude an AN? Or do you need special "coned down" imaging of the inner ear auditory canal itself?

I've had the former, not the latter, and it was noted that i had "no bvious abnormalities" of the cranial nerves "as imaged" - which doesn't sound very conclusive to me. Or is that just the way they word these things?

Thanks in advance to anyone able to give me a heads up.

[Jim Scott]

Mel ~

A 'regular, garden variety' MRI head scan - especially if taken with contrast- is definitely 'sufficient' to exclude an acoustic neuroma.  An MRI report stating 'no obvious abnormalities of the cranial nerves as imaged' is basically saying that you don't have an acoustic neuroma, which grows on the sheathing of the cranial nerves.  

Because 'a picture is worth a thousand words', here is a link to a post that shows one of our member's (Ernie) MRI scans with and without contrast. http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=8840.0  The second post in the thread (from John aka 'ScoobyDoo') has a link to a paper from The British Journal of Radiology with a detailed explanation of MRI scans and showing ANs with and without an acoustic neuroma present.

I trust these will aid you in understanding the efficacy of MRI scans exposing the existence of an acoustic neuroma, should one be present.

Jim

[mel07]

Thanks again Jim. Much appreciated.