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Limana68

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Sep 9, 2008
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CALS
Country
UK
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UK
City
UK
HI there
MY hubby has been suffering from the following symptoms
slurred speec-for approc 18 mths
balance/coordination-6 mths
for past 2 mths has suffered from severe fatigue, aches/stiffness in legs, arms , joints.
has also had probs with saliva in throat ( he tries to cough to get rid)

We have had various tests, blood tests, 24 hr urine, emg, and recently a MRI. the results show that he has atrophy of the cerebellum, and a small 1 cm cyst .The mri has ruled out MS.
Has anyone else has anything like this in their MRI? I am concerned that he may have these probs but also ALs, or is this part of ALS?

Pleas help if you can. We are now awaiting to see a specialist neurologist!
 
Limina, I don't know enough about medicine to comment on the cyst and the atrophy of the cerebellum. The slurred speech and saliva problems could be ALS bulbar-onset symptoms, but they could also be symptoms of many other conditions.

What was the outcome of the EMG, do you know? Because of the MRI, I would wait until you see the specialist before worrying about ALS. My own MRI was normal, and I understand that ALS signs do not show up in an MRI. It's good that they have ruled out MS.

Let us know what the neurologist says.

Hang in there,
BethU
 
HI bethU
Thanks for your reply.
The emg did not not show anything abnormal.
It just takes so long dosnt it ! The waiting!

Li x
 
The waiting drives you crazy!

Hang on,
BethU
 
hi

the atrophy seen in mri,s associated with als would be temporal causing dementia or anterior horn.
but this is seen only in a few,most pals have normal mri,s.
my dad has had a ct scan for possible altziemers and got the results back a few weeks ago.
there was no obvious atrophy but all other causes of his dementia symptoms have been ruled out,so its a wait and see thing.
they did however find a cyst at the front of his brain but they said was not the cause of his present sympyoms.
with regards to the brain cyst they are just going to leave it for now as he does not have any symptoms from it,these would be nausea,headaches and other brain tumour like symptoms.
they just asked him to take notice of any possible symptoms and report them to his gp who has been told of this.
cysts can clear of there own accord,but they can grow,turn into an abcess and very rarely be cancer related.
but in your husbands case as with my dad the cysts are not really the problem.
with your husbands mri results there could be other possibilities rather than als.
i hope the neuro can give you more answers soon.
 
Cerrebellar atrophy can be seen in Multiple System Atrophy which shares many symptoms with ALS. What did the neuro say?
 
HI there
Thanks for the replies, I will have to look up multiple system atrophy, as have not heard of it. The neuro we saw at the start said that my hubby had motor neurone problems and also ataxia, but then sent us for all the tests so we havent seen him since the mri, just the doctor, who couldnt really answer all our questions. So now we are waiitng to see the neuro again to see where we go from here.
Hubby is unable to walk very far without struggling, and really suffers later on if he has been busy during the day with fatigue and stiffness.
Anyway I will keep you posted!

Thanks!

Li xx
 
just a quick update, hubby has to go for a lumbar puncture and have another ct scan of chest and abdomen. hes read up and about the LP and is not looking forward to it.............. do any of you knowwhat thye look for.

Li
 
Well hubbys lumbar puncture came back normal, so thats good.

We saw the neuro last wk, who is unable to diagnose anything at the moment and wants hubby to go for genetic testing.
Then if thats normal, then he is being referred to the senior neurologist at another hospital who will hopefully make a decision!
Just a quick question thats been bugging me, if hubbys emg was ok, is that a good sign? As the neuro mentioned that he may have to have another one in the near future. Why would that be?

Thanks anyway for reading.

Li x
 
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