MRI on toddlers brain for ASD?

[ElyElyOy]

I just wondered if this was a common test done on suspected ASD children? My son is 18 months and this is being arranged by his Dr before he had another Consultant review to assess his development.

It surprised me quite a bit, it just makes me wonder if they maybe suspect something else?

Does he have epilepsy or some other condition, they already know about?

No, no (known) conditions affecting the brain. Maybe I should have asked more questions, I just thought it was a standard thing they did. They did say it should be quite quickly so hopefully I won’t have long to worry about it!

DS1 had an MRI scan before his consultant put him through to the ASD assessment - but there were issues around DS1’s birth that could have caused brain damage, and the consultant wanted to rule that out before moving on to the ASD assessments.

So when the consultant was talking to us about the MRI, it was discussed as being to do with DS1’s specific medical history rather than as a standard thing.

an MRI cannot diagnose ASD. lots of researchers are trying to do this but so far they haven't been able to. And it is definitely not used clinically for this.

an MRI could be used to check for anything else that could be wrong - epilepsy etc. ask what they are looking for.

Agree with pp, the mri will be to rule out other possibilities like cerebral palsy, or issue with brain development. I don’t think it can spot epilepsy - that is normally an eeg.

If there are concerns with his development - physical difficulties, health issues, speech delay etc it could be they want to rule out neurological conditions (They may also want to do genetic testing). Autistic features can be a part of or co morbid with other conditions that have a neurological origin, or are genetic in origin.

Ds had 2 MRIs - one to look at neurological causes for his difficulties and one to investigate his large head circumference. When these were clear, he started having genetic tests.

Sorry yes, I should have made it clearer that I didn’t think the tests were to diagnose ASD, but rather to rule out other causes etc.

He has a few minor issues (hyper mobility, excess dimples, low muscle tone etc) and was born small so maybe that’s it then, maybe it’s just because he has these other features and has potential for brain damage due to birth. I don’t know if the latter is the case, he had some problems with his heart rate leading to a emcs, but no oxygen/breathing problems etc.

He had a genetic test at birth that came back clear (microarray) so at least that’s out of the way!

So they may be thinking he has an over riding condition.

It may not be the case with your ds, but a clear microarray doesn't necessarily rule out all genetic conditions. My ds had a clear microarray, and several other genetic tests, but was found, last year (at 8) to have a genetic condition as a result of a large scale study into developmental delay. There are lots of layers of genetic testing, and it is a very fast developing, but new science. There are many people who are thought to have a genetic condition, but who have no diagnosis, as the particular mutation has not been discovered yet (ds's was only discovered in 2016). There is a group called SWAN UK (SWAN stands for Syndromes Without A Name) they have a very active Facebook group for families whose children are undergoing testing, but who have no diagnosis.

Thank you I have heard about SWAN but didn’t think about looking it up.

Yes, should have said a clear genetic test from a structural level, but not ruling out specific gene conditions.