Dr. Lynn serves on the Medical Advisory Board of The Transverse Myelitis Association. The following information is offered as a general response to questions related to Transverse Myelitis and is not to be construed as a specific medical recommendation for any individual. This information is based on the information provided in a brief question and is without the benefit of a complete history or an examination. Any decisions regarding diagnosis or treatment should be made in consultation with your personal physician who is best suited to make appropriate medical recommendations for you. The dictionary definition of the word lesion is an abnormal change in the structure of an organ or tissue due to injury or disease.
Lesion is a very nonspecific word meaning any abnormality of structure.
In TM, the abnormality may be the result of inflammation, swelling or destruction of cord tissue. Sometimes there is tissue damage that does not show up on a MRI of the cord. In this case, a microscopic lesion or area of inflammation or tissue injury is presumed to have occurred at a certain level of the cord based on findings on neurologic examination, but the MRI was not able to pick it up. One would assume that if a biopsy was done of the injured area of the cord, abnormalities such as inflammation would show up on microscopic examination of the tissue. It is true that the lesion may be small, limited to one level of the cord, and well localized.