If anyone has any insight or knowledge on what I’m looking at here, I appreciate it. Thank you!
I’ve annotated your images to help you see what is what, @annaleighm. Your styloids are very thick & you have a section of calcified ligament on each side. On the right it extends off the tip of your styloid & on the left it’s separated from & below your left styloid.
It looks like your right IJV is dominant & may be somewhat compressed but it looks like that’s happening higher up than C1 though it appears the C1 transverse process is touching it so could be causing compression in certain head positions. The left IJV doesn’t looked compressed to me but it still appears that the transverse process of C1 is touching the IJV on the left side.
The greater horns of your hyoid bone look a bit long & are curved somewhat upward. When too long or oddly angled, the greater horns of the hyoid can poke & irritate the internal carotid arteries near the carotid bifurcation, but your carotids aren’t visible in the pictures you posted so I assume they are from a CTV.
You also have an extremely straight cervical spine (loss of cervical lordosis) which brings the styloids closer to nerves & vascular tissues than when the curve is present. This is called military neck. The lordotic curve can be restored w/ some time & diligence using gentle PT exercises.
1 Like
A post was merged into an existing topic: May be Eagles… may be [___________] ?!
I agree with @Isaiah_40_31 & can’t add anything else!
@annaleighm if you have your original CT scan I might be able to help you see if your IJVs are getting compressed at C1. If you have access to your original scan, can you go to axial view and try to match yours up with this image I’ve attached of my own imaging? It’s an axial slice showing the area of C1. It’ll give me a better view!
Your internal carotid arteries also appear to have compression of some sort, especially the left side. There shouldn’t be a huge bulge in your artery like the one on the left. It may be an aneurysm or perhaps a clot but should be checked out ASAP. On the right, the artery is very thin just below your jaw then widens out at about the level of your hyoid bone. That can also be an indicator of compression. I’ve circled the two arteries in the areas that look like there may be a problem.
1 Like