Question..

How often should a child with central apnea have an MRI? My son had one at 4 months of age, now 21 months old. His central apnea has returned (after a short hiatus) and were wondering if you go with the MRI already done or if you get a new one??

Thanks..

Tiffany-
While I am still not a medical professional, my own inclination would be to rely on the recommendation of your son's doctors, particularly his pediatric neurologist.

If the earlier MRI already had established a problem, then unless there was a need to re-evaluate the problem, a follow-up might not be needed.

From your other posts, however, it sounds like there is some possibility that your son's central apnea (and some of his other symptoms) could be related to a suspicious feature (the low-lying cerebellar tonsils) noted on his earlier MRI and that there is a possibility that there has been some change in this feature (which might help doctor's determine if this feature has improved or gotten more significant or has remained the same).

I would add that my understanding is that the first year of life, in particular, is the period of the most rapid growth and development of the brain and nervous system. This increases the possibility that a problem too small to be detected earlier may be detectable now, or that a problem that may not have been present is present now. This makes the situation quite different than if your son had had the first MRI at 10 years of age and a repeat was being considered 18 months later.

I say this having once had an MRI myself and having found it to be a very intimidating experience. But if your son's doctor's feel that the repeat MRI would  be useful, then I would see where in this situation it would make sense to repeat it.

I would be glad to hear what others might recommend.

Do keep us posted.

Best wishes,
Bill

We talked with the nurse practitioner yesterday. She said that her and the pulmonologist had talked and agreed that taking Isaac back to neurology is a good idea. We are glad to have them on board and not feeling betrayed. They are even making a full copy of his "in clinic" chart, with doc notes and whatnot for us to take with us. So, here we go! We see neurology on Thursday next week (Feb 14).

Thanks for all the input!

We just got back from the neurologist. He said that he wanted to have Isaac's MRI repeated (scheduled for 2/25/2008) and a battery of blood work done to check out the chemicals floating (or not floating) around in his blood. That's where we are...If his MRI turns out normal, then I don't know where we go from there...

Had to reschedule the MRI due to chicken pox. He is having it done on 3/3/2008

TiffanyAcuff wrote:

Had to reschedule the MRI due to chicken pox. He is having it done on 3/3/2008

Hope all goes well with the MRI. I will look for your updates. Take care.

Judi

Well, here we go again??

Isaac does indeed still have "low lying cerebellar tonsils", but does NOT have a chiari malformation. Dr. F doesn't think this is playing a role in the apnea, but is willing to continue to investigate as long as we don't insist on anything involving a surgical procedure. We see him again on April 14 and will make plans to have a "BAERS" test done. This apparently measures how the base of the brain and brain stem receive and process sounds that they transmit through headphones. He does not have to be sedated as long as he leaves the headphones on.

If anyone else has had this test done, any input or thoughts about it would be wonderful since it is one I have not heard of before!

Thanks!!! Tiffany

Tiffany-
You might find some useful information on the BAERs (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential) test here:
http://www.wakemed.org/15274.cfm , if you haven't already run across it.

Best wishes,
Bill

Bill,

Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen that one. I did do some research on it because I wanted to know how to prepare Isaac in case they don't want to sedate him (which is fine with me). I need to buy some heavy duty headphones, but otherwise, I think we are back to strings and stickers!   He should do fine. I just need to figure out a creative way to prepare him for it.

We'll keep you posted..

Tiffany