My Symptoms Puzzle

Hi,

I'm a new sufferer of PT and was hoping to shed some light on my symptoms. I have so far seen four ENT doctors (most dismissive) and one neurologist and have had a MRI MRA brain and CT of the temporal bone and a MRA of the neck. I have mild sensiorneural hearing loss for years and developed the PT two months ago. I am set to have a LP end of the month but also wonder if I should get a MRV and regular brain CT. I am a male in my 50's, was overweight but have lost about 20 pounds and am close to a normal BMI now, and have had no other health problems.

My pattern is that I have a pressure like sensation at night (like your ear is in a seashell) which begins a few hours after lying down for the night, then seems to awaken me due to increasing sound intensity around 3am and then quiets a few hours after I am up for the day to only be replaced by pulsatile tinnitis for the remainder of the day till after a few hours of sleep. The pulsatile sound is a high pitched hiss like sound only interrupted by a brief moment in systole. This continues till a few hours after going to sleep at night.

I sleep very deeply till around 3am but overall am exhausted the past two months and seem to be developing anxiety and resulting depression which I have never had in life before.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this. I seem to have this dual set of symptoms I have not found anyone else to have anywhere I have searched. Otherwise I do not suffer from headaches, dizziness, visual problems or other symptoms.

Greatly appreciate your opinions!

 

Hi there,

Sorry to hear that you are feeling low with your PT.

Totally understandable.

In addition to my usual cacophony of hissing noises, I sometimes hear a white noise pulsating in my right ear, which I can quieten by clenching my jaw. When it happens, it drives me bonkers, so I sympathise.

What was the result of your MRA (brain and neck)/MRI/CT?

I think a brain MRI would give you more detail/information than a brain CT.

I know that both MRA and MRV focus on the blood vessels, but not sure if you need both. I have a colleague who may know. Ill get back to you on that.

Have you had a carotid doppler ultrasound?

What does your audiogram look like, and have you had an extended one (up to 12000khz)?

Is your PT sudden onset or gradual?

www.whooshers.com might give you some more information.

Karen (manager at tinntustalk) also has PT, who might be able to give you more direction than I can.

I have a past history of headaches, that were thought to be part of benign intracranial hypertension. I had a diagnostic LP, which was borderline. The only abnormal finding was a partly empty sella; which suggested something was pressing on the pituitary gland, making it difficult to see on the head MRI. I didnt fancy the VP shunt, so I lost weight, and years later, my headaches disappeared. However, like you, since developing t, I experience head pressure that I can feel when i lean forward, or change positions suddenly; along with a whooshing sound that eventually goes away after a few minutes.

Ill be interested to hear what your LP pressures are, and ensure you adhere to post LP precautions or you will end up with a spinal headache, which I can tell you from first hand experience, is debilitating.

Deb