Should I be concerned about this MRI result?
Asked by
Judi (
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November 26th, 2012
I have had some issues with my hip (or probably my back) and had an MRI because the doctor was going to do an injection for the pain. It turns out I didn’t have the sciatica he thought I had and we still don’t know the cause of my pain. I can deal with that.
What scared me was that they saw a cyst on my liver. I wouldn’t worry to much, but my mom recently died from liver cancer.
Can an MRI tell if a cyst is benign?
The sports medicine doctor didn’t even mention it. I just read it from the report.
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I don’t think so, they’ll probably need to do a biopsy….whey didn’t they mention it? That’s odd. My friend at work has spots on her kidney, so they did a biopsy and she’s waiting on results.
They just gave me a copy of the report.
And what does it say? I’d book an appt asap if they haven’t followed up.
It just says that I have a 1 cm cyst on my liver.
So it doesn’t say it’s benign or anything? Odd.
No. That’s why I’m asking. Maybe you can’t tell from an MRI.
The orthopedist isn’t in his scope of practice to mention anything about the liver. An MRI of the spine isn’t focused on the liver, and so the image of the liver may not be very clear.
Get a copy of the film/disk and the report and bring it to your primary care physician to look at. Then discuss whether more specific imaging and/or referral to a specialist is warranted.
Call the doctor who did the MRI and tell her what you saw on the report and ask what it means and for information regarding followup with another physician. Here is some very, very basic information about liver cysts. It doesn’t sound serious, BUT, call the doctor who gave you the MRI and furnished you with the report. It must be very concerning for you @Judi. I sincerely hope it all turns out to be okay. Call the doc!
@Judi…. Get a second opinion…..please.
Call the place you had the MRI and tell them you have a question about the report, maybe you can leave a message for the radiologist.
When I hear cyst I never worry, to me cyst means benign, but I am not a medical doctor, and I actually am not 100% sure cyst is technically always benign?
You could ask your GP just to glance at the report? Maybe just fax it to him.
Cysts are usually incidental findings that don’t mean anything.
@Rarebear, even with a family history of liver cancer?
Liver cancer is a solid mass, not cystic, but by all means ask your doctor.
It IS possible to tell if a cyst is not malignant on MRI. If it is a cyst, it is not malignant. Cysts look very different to tumours on any cross sectional imaging.
Thank you Dutchess. I am an infrequent visitor/contributor!
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