mri without contrast

Hi everyone

I was wondering if anyone could advise me about what to do going forward.

In February 2023 I woke up one morning and I felt like the whole room was spinning and I was struggling to hear out of my left ear. This happened for over a week. I went to the doctors and they prescribed some antihistamine and anti sickness tablets. This didn’t help. I then developed a cricket noise in my left ear. I continued to wake up to dizzy spells when lying on my left side. I also was unable to exercise, because if I moved my head to the left, in a particular spot the room would spin. GP referred me to an ENT. While waiting for my appointment the left side of my face started twitching. I seen the ENT in January this year and he did a hearing test which shows loss of hearing in my left ear. He sent me for an MRI, but I was told it would be a few months. So I paid to go private. When I received the referral letter from my GP, it didn’t say with contrast. (I wasnt aware at the time this was needed). I received my MRI results last week and it states the following

“No evident abnormality in relation to the IAM's. There is a small area of nonspecific periventricular T2 hyperintensity affecting the white matter adjacent to the right-sided frontal horn.”

I have now received my NHS MRI appointment today for next week and when I called them they state the consultant has requested it without contrast. No point having this done again. My GP is calling me tomorrow. Is it worth me requesting them to contact the consultant to request MRI with contrast or is it unlikely that I have a AN. I can’t cope with the dizzy spells everyday and the cricket noise. I feel like im going crazy.

sorry for the long post. Thank you for reading

[Karbob]

Hi there. My first scan was without contrast. When they found the AN, they then sent me for a scan with contrast. But my yearly scan is without conttast. So Jasmine from that that The co ready just shows what it's attached to and not particularly AN. Hope you do s out what's going on, so you can get some treatment. Karen

[DizzyDolly66]

Hi, I had MRI images with and without contrast. The ENT showed me that the AN was there on both. On the one without the contrast it was visible but dark grey, with the contrast it had lit up white. My subsequent follow ups will be without contrast so I think it’s definitely worth having it done.