Another minor annoyance

[csutherland]

Has anyone had Pulsatile Tinnitus? This is tinnitus that is in sync with the heartbeat.

Jerry has been having this annoyance for the past 3 wks or so. He has had considerable hearing loss for over 40 years, and "regular" tinnitus has been a part of that; however, this pulsing thing is recent. His BP was up a little and his BP meds have been changed a little to help with that. This has not helped the tinnitus though. A bout of flu/cold preceded this by a few weeks and he at first thought it was related, but it's not getting better at all.

In researching Pulsatile Tinnitus I've come across references to aneurysm as a possible cause, but aneurysm of what? Yes, he has a rather large ascending aortic aneurysm but that would seem an unlikely cause of ear noise. Vascular reasons are given as possibilities, but they're not specific.

Just wondering if anyone has experience with this.

 

[catwoman]

Yup, that sounds like something I had in the last year. My PCP mentioned something about a nerve that goes through/near the ear and carries the heartbeat with it. To be on the safe side, he did an EKG. I had flown a couple of times right around this and had developed bronchitis.

It went away after a week or two, with lots of antibiotics & steroid shots.

 

[PJmomrunner]

Pulsatile tinnitus requires investigation of the vascular system with carotid and vertebral arteriograms to exclude arterial obstruction, aneurysms, and vascular neoplasms.

from:
http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmanual/section7/chapter82/82c.jsp

Since you say Jerry has an ascending aortic aneurysm and aortic aneurysms are known to sometimes be associated with aneurysms elsewhere in the body, I would think further investigation is warranted.