Hi there,
For most people I would say diagnosis happens pretty quickly after a bone breakage. I believe the X rays will show that the damage is caused by bone weakening such as osteoporosis rather than stress or shock such as falling or something heavy impacting against the bone. Another key form of diagnosis is through illness and the body’s inability to fight infection. This happened to me, within a week I went from having a cough to full blown pneumonia, I also had a history over the previous two years of poor recovery from everyday infections.
The Blood test, BMB and MRI are really used to confirm MM and for staging level 1, 2 or 3. In the blood tests, my medics regularly check levels of Heamoglobin, Leukocytes, Platelates and Immunoglobulin. They will also check other things such as light chains and specific white cells. This will give them an indication of how the MM is progressing. The BMB gives a snap shot of how much MM is in the Bone Marrow. My concern is that it only gives a snap shot in only one area, i.e. where the BMB has taken place. As MM can be in different parts of the body it may give an inaccurate indication of how bad the MM is, e.g. If MM is prevelent in the Thema or the Shoulders and not in the Hips then it will give a false indication of the overall level of MM in the body. The MRI or MRT is probably the most accurate indicator as it scans the whole body and will show all the areas affected by MM. I attended a presentation last year in Germany and the gist was that with MRT, they can identify clusters of MM cells around the body including in the smaller bones such as forarms and chins. Scary considering that in the past, it was believed that MM only occured in the larger bones such as Hips, Them, Shoulders and Spine.
dickb 10 years, 1 month ago.
miriam19.
