ozangel83

In Nov. of 05 I had a brain MRI for dizziness/balance issues which happened to report finding increased signal to the left mastoid, and their impression was "fluid in left mastoid suggesting mastoiditis" I had not had an ear infection or anything prior to this. The Dr who ordered the MRI never went over the MRI with me, just called me and said everything had come back normal, and never mentioned anything about the "fluid in the left mastoid"

This past Thursday I had another MRI of my head, which the findings came back with no mention of fluid/increased signal on the left mastoid. However, I requested a copy of the MRI images, and I can see a rather large white area behind the left ear. Now they were doing THIS MRI to check for aneurysms- doing to the MRI for my migraines since they are changing so much lately, not the dizziness and balance issues which is why I had the MRI before. (although I am still having the dizziness issues....it just isn't why they did this MRI)

I requested the MRI pictures from 05 to be able to bring elsewhere if I choose to do so. They aren't on a disk though, they are the actual x-ray looking films. Just briefly looking at them, you can see the big white area in the left which they are talking about, but they are so tiny I really can't tell more than that. There's about 20 pictures on a big sheet of x-ray paper. Anyway..that's not the point....

I understand I am not a radiologist, nor do I know how to read MRI's. I'm not claiming to. I have requested to sit down with the radiologist to look at the pictures and have him explain what he saw, and be able to ask him this, and I was told it wasn't possible. I was told they were looking for aneurysms, they found none, period.

*Edit* Sorry, got wrapped up and posted pictures...my bad. I haven't been in here in years and didn't refresh my memory by reading the rules again :0(

Question still remains, as long as I still see the same thing from the MRI in 05 in the MRI from now, would it possibly be worth it to get a second opinion on the MRI? Is it possible that the radiologist from now didn't bother mentioning it in his report because it didn't have to do with the migraines which is why they were doing the MRI?

Also, what possibilities are there for there to be increased signal in the mastoid?

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