Brain mri results: differential includes nonspecific demyelinating process such as ms vasculitis and infectious etilogies. what does this mean?

Meaning of MRI: Differential- this refers to the list of possible diagnoses for the person. The radiologist is not exactly sure what the imaging diagnosis is but what they are saying is that it looks like is ms or ms like things. Ms vasculitis (swelling of the arteries seen in ms). The other thing he/she thinks is possible are infectious etiologies (causes: such as bacterial or viral infection.

MRI results: When the radiologist sees spots on the brain, they have to describe them, then propose possible causes of them. They are often trained to say what you wrote, although this is often not helpful to clinicians. Common causes of white matter / demyelinating changes are high blood pressure, smoking, head injuries and then many other, less common things.

Need correlation: Your report is nonspecific and radiologist is merely listing disorders which might cause the lesions viewed. Your white matter lesions would be likely most consistent with migraine, but would not hurt to have a neurologist see you and provide review of your films.