Editor's note: "Need to Know" is a series inspired by common forum questions and comments from readers. Have a comment or question about MS? Visit our forum. This week's question is inspired by the forum topic " Have you had a lumbar puncture to help diagnose your MS? " from Jan. 29. I got a spinal tap to help confirm my MS diagnosis. Two amazing nurses kept my attention somewhat diverted while the physician performed the procedure using the aid of a fluoroscope. I say "somewhat" because the science nerd in me was fascinated with the view on the fluoroscope monitor, which resembled a livestreamed version of the spinal tap. No, it didn't hurt. A few weeks later, I met with my MS neurologist. Based on all the data collected from my tests — MRIs, blood tests, and evoked potential tests, among others — I was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS. Did I need the spinal tap? Maybe. Maybe not. Did it help confirm my MS diagnosis? Yes. What is the diagnostic necessity of a spinal tap? There's some uncertainty among patients over the necessity of a spinal tap procedure to help diagnose MS. On the one hand, the procedure provides good data on the presence of MS and can expedite a diagnosis.
Half a century after their debut, Japan's pager services will finally cease on Tuesday, bringing an end to what was once considered a must-have communications tool by high school girls before the advent of mobile phones. Tokyo Telemessage Inc., the nation's sole remaining pager provider, said it would begin shutting down the radio signals behind its services at around midnight Monday. In recent years, the tiny device had been favored mainly by those working in hospitals, where cell phone use was once discouraged because of concerns about poor reception and the disruptive effect that electromagnetic waves can have on medical devices. Dubbed pokeberu (pocket bells), sales of the devices in Japan began in 1968 with the predecessor of NTT Corp. To reach someone, callers would dial a pager number from a landline, causing the device to beep to notify the owner. Initially, pager services were used by companies to communicate with sales staff who were out of the office. But from the late 1980s onward, their popularity grew because they could be used to display short messages by creatively combining numbers and text characters.
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