Somatic Pulsatile Tinnitus

FOr information. On Tuesday I had a much long awaited appt with a tinnitus specialist. I have already had appts with ent at my local hospital where I have been given three diagnosises. he straight away cleared my ears of crackling due to hairs wrapping around my eardrum. He wants me to go for a ct scan as I have only had an mri at the first hospital. He also wants me to go for blood tests including a t3, which I have never had. HE said that my pt will go not in days but months and I need to look to the future. My pt seems to come from my neck region and when I move my head and jaw it changes. It gets very loud. During the last four weeks it has got worse by moving slightly and the noise clashes with my voice when I speak. How bizaar. I am wondering whether it is a thyroid problem although I have had some tests but not a t3. Does anyone identify with this at all please?

 

@Worker - Did you get a Free T3 and Free T4, along with TSH for your thyroid? What did the results show? Thyroid issues are known to cause Tinnitus in many cases. However, if you can change tone and amplification when you move your head or jaw, then this probably speaks to a muscular compression issue, neurovascular conflict, or some other problem that should be able to be identified with contrast-enhanced imaging. I will be keeping you in my thoughts.

 

I had a free t4 back in Sept which was normal but i have never had a t3 test. I had the ct scan with contrast yesterday eve which was a little weird and today but unwell today. It is more the volume than the tone i change and yes my voice is amplified when i speak some words, this is more recent. Just hoping that something will be found on the scan. Do you have similar symptoms to mine? This has been life changing. I had a great life before this started and no health problems at all. Thank you for thinking of me.

 

I have similar issues. When I hear the pulse sound that matches my heartbeat it clashes when talking. And when you say it gets worse when moving slightly.....do you mean the pulsing sound gets louder when do something other then just sitting still?

 

Yes it changes with every movement i make. I originally thought it was my body position but it is when mu neck moves and it is in the front in the middle of my neck where i can manipulate the noise. When it is very loud i can feel the pulses at the back of my head at the base. i can make it change from the left ear to the right by pressing on the bone at the back of my right ear and by turning my head to the right. I had a ct scan with contrast on thursday and am waiting for result. Are you in the process of testing at the moment? It has been life changing and started one day out of the blue.

 

My PT started a couple of months ago and changes volume a lot with head and jaw movements. It has gradually gotten quieter but still a ways to go, I went through anxiety, depression, all that stuff. Mine was never 24/7. Initially I thought it was something cardiovascular, all tests normal, but lately I'm thinking that my brain turned up the gain on hearing for some reason and now I'm hearing blood flow that I never heard before. If you can change it that much then maybe it's something like that. You could have issues in the muscles of the neck that are causing all the changes, they may have been there for a while but now you notice them. I'm not a doctor but have become my own doctor because the medical community doesn't seem interested, except I've had luck with research doctors. I haven 4 more doctors appts coming up.

 

yes I agree that the medical profession dont particularly care. I have become my own researcher. I have now been referred to another hospital but I am waiting for an appt. Are you a member of whoosher.com on facebook I have found this very supportive? I recently has an appt with physiotherapist who was very jnterested and asked me tons of questions and said that it is something physical. Next appt 11 march he said he was a geek just i need. have you got any further with yours?

 

Worker- I'm not a member of whooshers on Facebook, I've looked at the website a few times. For a while I thought I was in the pulsatile category, but I read dr Bruce hubbards story and he had a pulsating hiss, along with two loud steady tones. That made me think that maybe I'm more like regular tinnitus sufferers except I have a pulsatile characteristic, especially because my T has reacted after being around loud noise for a while. Mine isn't constant, but I have a lot of hissing in both ears, more in the left, that changes volume with movements. I did more audiology testing, everything normal, talked to a dr in Brazil that specializes in somatosensory tinnitus, she thinks my prognosis is good since I've had slow steady improvement over the last 7 weeks, but she gave a couple ideas that may help speed it up. My chiro says the muscles in my neck look good and have normal movement. I have an appt with a dr that specializes in PT on March 10, he does surgery to correct some conditions, but also works at a tinnitus treatment center. I don't think I need surgery, but it took 2 months to get the appt with him, and I can learn more about potential Treatment, if I need it.

 

Karen,

Yes, my appointment is with Dr. Eisenman at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, I hope he can shed more light on my condition, although I'm doubting that mine is cardiovascular since it isn't 24/7, and has become more intermittent.

I've thought about getting copies of my MRA, temporal bone CT, and coratid artery US, so that he can look at the images, since he may see something that another person may have missed.

Have you thought about having someone like Dr. Eisenman take a second look at your tests?