Hi I wanted to know how accurate are brain Mri and spinal taps when it comes to finding cancer in your body. Is there any chance somthing could of been missed as I have had both and they both came back negative but I'm scared as I have been very nauseas the last week and my head hurts. I had all these tests done because I have a optic nerve swelling in my right eye. But they can't figure out why.
The mri was in June and the spinal tap in August
An MRI in combination with a spinal tap are very reliable in diagnosing cancer of the central nervous system (including brain). On the MRI anatomical anomalies will be visible, and the fluid of the tap will be analyzed for malignant cells.
There are many possible reasons for a swelling of the optic nerve, cancer is the least likely one.
I can imagine you feel miserable and are worried about your complaints, and having no diagnosis yet doesn't particularly help with that. good to know though it isn't cancer.
Which tests will they do next?
They want me to do a sleep study next I have also done a eye ultra sound to check for calcium build up and they also said my eye was normal. I did a eye scan to get a 3D look at the eye and they have also taken photos
And you already got the results of all tests?
By the way; did they check intercranial pressure during the spinal tap?
I myself have headaches and nausea (and also brainfog, visual aura's, tinnitus etc.), possibly caused by the elevated intercranial pressure as a result of Lyme's disease (I didn't have a spinal tap but have neuroborreliosis so will have elevated pressure for sure).
I also had a sleep study done a few months ago. It showed light apnea and I'm on a CPAP during the night since a few weeks. No relief yet, but it seems to take some time to get some improvement. I expect more from my Lyme treatment though, which will take a few months also.
Patience is the key in this:-s
At least you now know your eye isn't damaged and you don't have cancer. Hopefully you will find out soon what is the cause of your complaints.
Hi Kenneth. I have had many scans of every variety, MRI's, CT, PET, Ultrasound etc. Theses scans are amazingly accurate, I have a 10mm meningioma found when I was actually being scanned for something else so they weren't even looking for it! Be reasured, if it was there they would have found it. But if you're still not happy tell them.