People with MS?

Question

I am wondering about my evoked potential test, if it was done right, I had electrodes around head and neck, stared at a checkered black & white screen for minutes at a time, that was all I did, and it came out neg, is that all they do when that test is done and what can they tell from me just starring at the tv? My vision is blurry to but, this could be due to age or medications, did loose my vision for a couple of seconds where everything on the comp disappeared and came back few seconds later, what was that? When I told the doc's they looked at me like I had 3 heads?

Answer 1

Debi. The most accurate test for MS is to have an MRI of your brain. The person above is correct (Formerly) MS plaque attacks the retinal nerves (very noticeable) as well as many other nerves.

Our 21 year old daughter's first symptom one morning was complete blindness in the bottom half of her left eye. She experienced no other symptoms. We had an MRI done two days later in the middle of the winter and her first Neurologist confirmed that she had the decease MS for a long time.

Now get this. She was a school and sectional swimming champion and played first base on her state winning fast pitch softball team. Very athletic to say the least.

She's an Rn in a delivery room in NC. Every 3 - 3/12 years she has another exacerbation (recurrence) of her symptoms. Her last recurrence was one month ago. Intravenously fed doses of steroids over a five day period bounced her back to normal within two weeks. She did not lose a minute's work during this time. She gives herself injections of Betaceron every day 365 days of the year.

If and only if your ever stricken with this decease it's important to see a Doc. early on as the medicines can and do help to reduce and eliminate the plaque size spots on a patients brain. If you don't have insurance for testing and medicine The MS organization will help you pay or pick up the tab for the medicine.

Answer 2

Here's some info on the test (at the link) that might help. I don't know what relevance this test has if a patient already knows they have MS. If the doctors are not sure whether you have MS, a negative result on this test raises more questions than it answers, while a positive test would help support a diagnosis of MS.

A negative test means that your neurological response to sight (and sound, if included) is not delayed - so, plaque is not slowing nerve impulses along the pathway from the retina to the visual center in the brain. The fact that you experienced a visual disturbance and the test had negative results might suggest some type of neurological problem other than MS, but everyone with MS does not have problems with vision, so there's not much you can conclude from a negative result. There may be some sort of meaning to the fact that the test did not detect your temporary loss of vision, but maybe it only collects information when it flashes something on the screen, and you experienced the vision loss between test events?

I wouldn't lose any sleep over this. If you are fairly certain you have MS, there's probably nothing the doctors would do differently if the test had been positive. You might consider asking the doctors if they think you have something other than MS.