Why would EEG be requested after MRI

[Eegeek]

Admittedly I’m a worrier…

14yo dd has been having horrible episodes of headaches, fatigue and fainting/fits over the past few months.

Only so far blood tests done, last saw her consultant a couple of months ago who was requesting an ecg (heart) and an mri.
Haven’t had the ecg app through yet, but was sent for the MRI last week.

Just had a letter through with an appointment for dd to go for an EEG (brain) in 2 weeks. This was never mentioned at the consultant so I’m panicking they saw something on the mri.

With googling (I know, I know) I can only find people who are sent for an mri after an eeg, not the other way about. Is there something that an eeg would show better?

Hoping for honest answers, thanks in advance…

I wonder if there was nothing on MRI and so they just want to do the EEG to be sure they are not missing anything.

I'm a cardiac patient who annually does a cardiac MRI from head to groin (2 hours of fun!) and also a week-long ECG recording of my heart. So it's common to do an MRI and then an ECG or EEG to measure, in my case, heart activity, and in your DC's case, brain activity.
An EEG is useful in diagnosing epilepsy and seizure disorders.

@Formybabies

I wonder if there was nothing on MRI and so they just want to do the EEG to be sure they are not missing anything.

Oh I really hope that’s the case.

Just making me panic that it wasn’t mentioned before and the appointment is so soon. From what I’ve read an MRI would show more than an eeg anyway so that’s where I’m confused.. I may be totally wrong though.

Fingers crossed it’s nothing like you say, thanks.

And just to add, all the best. It's never ever ever nice to have to do these tests. It's a worrying time, but it's more often the case that it turns out to be a vitamin deficiency or iron deficiency than anything sinister.

@TheVanguardSix

I'm a cardiac patient who annually does a cardiac MRI from head to groin (2 hours of fun!) and also a week-long ECG recording of my heart. So it's common to do an MRI and then an ECG or EEG to measure, in my case, heart activity, and in your DC's case, brain activity. An EEG is useful in diagnosing epilepsy and seizure disorders.

She’s to get a 12 lead ecg then a 24 hour one I think, although nothings come through for that yet I know this is just to rule stuff out as we discussed it at the consulting appointment.

Just worried as the brain one wasn’t mentioned, thanks for letting me know it’s common to do the mri then the eeg though, that’s reassuring. I wonder if they’re querying epilepsy with the fainting/fits, could they rule that out with the Mri do you know?

@TheVanguardSix

And just to add, all the best. It's never ever ever nice to have to do these tests. It's a worrying time, but it's more often the case that it turns out to be a vitamin deficiency or iron deficiency than anything sinister.

Thank you

Hi just wanted to reassure you that this can happen. My DS initially had MRI which came back clear, nothing of interest so was then sent for an EEG to look at the electrical activity in his brain rather than the structure (MRI), the EEG picked up epilepsy where the MRI had shown nothing.

You may find both procedures were requested at same time and have only just recieved appt now due to waiting lists. His consultant also explained that there is a ,'work up' of standard tests they have to do with minors presenting with such symptoms to make sure they cover all bases

@Dugi3 thank you so much that’s really reassuring! Although I’m a worrier I’ve actually kept a cool head throughout this whole thing but that letter threw me into a wobbly mess!

Hopefully it’s just covering all bases as you say. I hope your ds’ epilepsy is managed well.

When I was 14 I had similar issues and I had MRI on head to rule out benign tumour (was fine) then EEG to check for epilepsy (fine) then ECG (can't remember what that was for) even ended up in ENT dept until I said to my mum since they'd ruled out the more serious stuff I was fed up of the tests so could they stop. That was 21 years ago. Please don't worry, it seems from mine and previous posters experience this isn't unusual. although I appreciate easier said than done.

The EEG was probably requested at the same time as MRI but it may have been the waiting list was longer.

I’m so sorry I didn’t notice these last
replies!

Came on to update dd has had 2 episodes this week, including one at school today, so the sooner we get to the bottom this the better!
We also got the ecg through too, I’ve calmed down a bit after my panic receiving that first letter.

@Jericha thank you for the reassuring post, that’s good to know nothing came up and wasn’t anything serious.

@GigantosaurusRex thank you, I’m hoping this is the case.