chiari.....

I was just watching a new show called A Gifted Man. It's an hour drama about a surgeon. He just had a case of a young girl who presented with a stiff neck and pain when yawning. He diagnosed her with Chiari. Several months ago a case of this was on House. There was a time I had never heard of this. Now it's been on two TV shows. Why? Is is becoming more common. Or is this something we are just now able to diagnose? Anna's Mom I thought you'd be interested in this.

For information on Chiari:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold%E2%80%93Chiari_malformation

I think more people are getting brain MRI's these days, and that is how Chiari gets diagnosed.

Interesting how it is becoming subject material in TV shows, although the House episode was very disappointing to Chiarians due to the poor content of that particular show.

Anna had FOUR sets MRI's of her brain and neck in 2001-2003, and her Chiari malformation was missed on ALL of them. Mayo Clinic went back and looked at those MRI's and said all the radiologists had missed her Chiari. I couldn't believe it.

It was when I learned about Chiari in 2004, looked at Chiari images online and then compared Anna's MRI's to those images...I thought I saw Chiari on Anna's MRI's. We took Anna to three places (The Chiari Institute, Mayo Clinic, and the University of Chicago). And we were told that yes, she did indeed have Chiari.

Cheryl