MAC and brain atrophy?

Posted by doberdoo @doberdoo, May 28 1:38am

I had a devastating accident where I shattered my leg, broke my jaw and hairline fracture of the hip. Surgery to put me back together has landed me in a rehab facility for a minimum of three months. During my hospitalization testing for extent of injuries they CT scanned everything. One disturbing result was diffuse brain atrophy - non abscesses. Has anyone heard of MAC being a cause of this? I Googled and it said yes if MAC has disseminated outside of the lungs and usually presents in the brain as abscesses. Since I am confined to this rehab facility for a minimum of three months I have no access to my Northwestern MAC doctors who refuse to do absolutely refuse to do tele-health visits. I am very concerned. There are NO doctors at this facility to ask either. I am just trying to pick the brains of our very insightful and informed participants in this group. If it is MAC related I thought maybe forced start of the Big 3 would slow the brain progression and stop dementia. Thank you for your thoughts.

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pacathy | @pacathy | May 28 8:06am

I am very sorry to hear about your accident. I certainly hope you have swift healing.
Keep in mind...I am not a doctor and don't have personal experience. I
just took a brief look at atrophy and MAC in lit. It is possible, but rare to have MAC in brain. However, it sounds like patients present with neurological symptoms such as seizures, headaches, etc.

Our brains generally shrink slowly starting about age 35 or 40. Many factors can accelerate the process including smoking, excessive alcohol intake, inadequate sleep, some infections (AIDS and others) and some neurodiseases. It sounds like frequency of infections, including UTI's, flu etc, might thru inflammation. Both Mass General and Cleveland Clinic have patient information online.

Sue, Volunteer Mentor | @sueinmn | May 28 9:31am

@doberdoo I'm so sorry to hear about your accident and this current confinement.
As @pacathy has said, all of our brains atrophy with age, and it is difficult to pinpoint any specific cause in most cases.
That said, I think you may be confusing the term "non abscesses" with the NTM term "abscessus." What the radiologist is reporting is that the voids are not abscesses - that is not pockets of apparent infection. So I think you can breathe a sigh of relief and conclude that you do not have MAC in your brain. Disseminated MAC, where it appears in other parts of the body, is rare, and mostly occurs in immuno-compromised people such as transplant patients, HIV/AIDS patients or people undergoing chemo.
Even though you cannot have a tele-health visit with your provider, are you able to submit your questions, and maybe the imaging report, via an e-visit for them to look at?

bayarea58 | @bayarea58 | May 28 10:43am

@doberdoo sorry to hear about your accident. Best wishes for a quick and full recovery. I agree with others, brain atrophy occurs with age. Whether the atrophy is out of range for what would be expected for your age would be a question for your medical team, I would assume preferably a neurologist.

rosefoxx1 | @rosefoxx1 | May 29 10:41am

If you don’t get an answer, I’ll ask my doctor for you. If you wanna private message me my name is Rose.

Justin McClanahan, Moderator | @JustinMcClanahan | May 29 11:18am

In reply to @rosefoxx1 "If you don’t get an answer, I’ll ask my doctor for you. If you wanna private..." + (show)

Hello @rosefoxx1, You may notice I removed your phone number from your post. Mayo Clinic Connect is a public website and we encourage members to not share personal identifying information to help protect them from the potential of unwanted solicitors.