What Brain Diseases Would Show up as an Injury on an MRI?

The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine is a diagnostic tool that allows neurologists to see the soft tissue in the brain. The machine aligns the water molecules in your body to generate faint signals picked up by the scanning portion of the machine to create cross-sectional images of the brain in great detail. Most brain diseases are diagnosed with the help of an MRI.

Multiple Sclerosis

• Multiple sclerosis is a disease where the body views its own tissue as harmful and eats away at the protective nerve sheath. The result can be debilitating as the brain's ability to communicate with the rest of the body is severed slowly. Ultimately, many who suffer from multiple sclerosis may lose the ability to speak, walk or feed themselves. An MRI is used to diagnose multiple sclerosis. The lesions associated with the body eating away at the protective sheaths can show up on the MRI, especially when a dye marker is intravenously inserted into the bloodstream to mark active lesions.

Dementia

• Dementia covers a wide range of diseases and conditions where a person loses specific intellectual and social abilities. Often, dementia interferes with daily activities, causing an elderly person to forget family members or close friends, get easily lost or forget safety protocols like turning off the stove when finished cooking. Some forms of dementia such as those resulting from stroke can be treated, whereas others such as Alzheimer's disease may cause progressive deterioration. An MRI can show brain mass that helps doctors locate areas of the brain that may be deteriorating and losing function. In some cases, fluid in the brain is seen, which, if removed, may help to alleviate the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

Tumors

• Brain tumors are a collection of abnormal cells that have grown together into a cluster within your brain. These clusters may be cancerous or benign (noncancerous). Even benign tumors can cause damage and dysfunction. Tumors may put pressure on other brain centers, causing the pressured region to swell, shrink or otherwise lose function. Depending on the afflicted region, a person may experience speech issues, balance problems or even seizures. An MRI is able to pinpoint not only the location of a tumor, but the exact size of the mass. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine whether a tumor is cancerous from an MRI.

Pituitary Gland Diseases

• The pituitary gland is a small gland about the size of a pea located at the base of the brain. Its function is to control hormone production by sending signals to the thyroid, adrenal and sex glands. Having an overactive or underactive pituitary gland can lead to significant health issues. Cushing's syndrome is a condition where the pituitary is overactive, causing the body to produce too much corticosteroid. Addison's disease is the opposite, where the pituitary is not producing enough corticosteroids. While urine and saliva tests are used in diagnosis of these conditions, an MRI scan helps confirm any abnormalities in the pituitary and adrenal glands with lesions, tumors or other injury to these areas.