I'm a 16-Year-Old with Pulsatile Tinnitus — So Far Done a CT Scan, and Angiogram Coming Up

About 7 months ago I had chronic migraines for a straight week!

Towards the end of that week I had noticed that I had a slight whooshing sound in my right ear. It was driving me crazy! But I had noticed something about it: if I put slight pressure on my neck specifically where my carotid is, then it would stop. But when I let go the whooshing was still there. So I mentioned to my family and then we waited for a month to go to a doctor. Just to see if it would go away, well it didn't.

Then I went to 3 different doctors. They looked at my ears and said it was fine; they just said that it was probably built up fluid in my ears so they prescribed me Montelukast and another medicine but it didn't help.

So about 5 months later I went back to my family doctor and told her it never went away so she said that she was going to send me to ENT and so she did.

I went to the ENT about a month later and I told him about my symptoms. He took a listen to my neck and he said he heard something unusual in my neck artery, but it was hard for him to find the sound. He said it was like a high pitched wheeze like sound but he said he didn't think it was a bruit (vascular murmur).

So I went home and I have a stethoscope at my house and I listened to my neck. It took me a while but then, I found it! It was like he said, a high pitched sound. So anyways I got a contrast CT scan however nothing came up.

Now I've been getting headaches about everyday. The headaches are mainly on my right side of my head, but it's only if I move around a lot its weird. But ibuprofen does help it, sometimes quietens down the pulsing too. And I have noticed that my pupils are very uneven!

But anyways the ENT told me if nothing came up on the CT scan he wants to do an angiogram to make sure.

Has else anyone experienced this before?

 

Circle of Willis - don't be scared by that because half the population does not have a complete circle where at least one artery is absent or underdeveloped.

The circle of Willis receives all the blood that is pumped up the two internal carotid arteries that come up the front of the neck and that is pumped from the basilar artery formed by the union of the two vertebral arteries that come up the back of the neck. All the principal arteries that supply cerebral hemispheres of the brain branch off from the circle of Willis. The circle of Willis is often not complete.

Most of the time this becomes noted in older people as they develop occlusion due to atherosclerosis, but for younger people an artery is underdeveloped or from hyperextension of neck when neck is raised from a lying back position. It may be a carotid artery, but it could be a vertebral artery. An Angiogram is by far the best test.

Sometimes PT will go away, but there's are outpatient methods if needed. Medication will often solve the problem.