Hi, I was recently diagnosed with 6 cm bilateral elongated styloid processes. They discovered it randomly when I did a CT contrast for my neck.
I’ve had swallowing problems for 6 years with ear fullness and some neck pain.
Last 3 weeks I’ve had balance issues, short term memory problems and so on.
My question is if my CT shows any hint of compression?
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@EagleHorns88 - Welcome to our forum! I’m impressed! 6cm styloids are very long! The newer symptoms you’ve mentioned can be indicative of some form of vascular compression & based on your imaging above, I’d say you have some serious internal jugular vein compression going on. I appears to be predominantly caused by the transverse process of C1 & possibly some soft tissue. I annotated your image above.
Please be careful to delete or cover any personal information on your imaging before you post it on our forum. I removed your name from the image you posted so you don’t need to this time around.
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I agree with @Isaiah_40_31 that you definitely have IJV compression; and that it’s not just from the styloid but from the C1 process as well. It looks like your styloid isn’t continuous too in this image anyway, you either have a calcified section of stylo-hyoid ligament or your styloid has broken at some point…not that it matters, judging from your symptoms it all needs to come out!
I hope that you’re able to see one of the doctors on our list in Sweden & hopefully get some treatment!
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Follow up question @Jules @Isaiah_40_31
Is this Arcuate Foramen and is it relevant for my doctor to know?
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@EagleHorns88 arcuate foramen is a normal human variant, so your doctor (unless you’re a lucky one with a compassionate doctor) will likely giggle at you if you bring it up. It’s most likely not what’s causing your symptoms.
Can I see the axial view of your C1? It will help us assess the IJV compression better. I’ve attached my own imaging to help you know what to look for. It’s the top vertebrae with the white circle in the top middle:
EDIT: just realized I already helped you previously with your imaging lol
Hey bro, check our DMs, i have already met the top doctor in my country and i’m doing a doppler in november sometime, i also have an EKG for 3 days to see if that says anything.
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I don’t know much about it, we’ve had a few discussions about it & as @TML says the arcuate foramen doesn’t seem to cause symptoms very often, but can occasionally block blood flow, have a read of these discussions, there’s some links to research:
First Timer Questions - General - Living with Eagle
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I see it quite a bit when annotating imaging. Some population research shows that 30% of humans have it (half of those have fully arcuate foramen like @EagleHorns88 and half of them have partial arcuate foramen - which I actually have). If an arcuate foramen were causing symptoms, it would ve very scary symptoms, since the vascular structure in question would be the vertebral artery. Would most likely present as heavy stroke symptoms, or strokes themselves
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