Hi & welcome to the site!
There’s lots of info about common symptoms & possible explanations, getting diagnosed etc in the Newbies Guide Section if you’ve not seen it already, your symptoms could be from ES…but to answer your first question yes, a regular CT is fine to diagnose ES. A CT with contrast is useful to see if there’s any vascular compression (headaches is a possible symptom of vascular ES but not always), so if you already have a CT then it should be fine to see any elongated styloids &/or calcified ligaments.
I think about using a Mac to transform images has been asked before (not at all tecchie so can’t help with that!)
Don’t know if this will help:
CT conversion - General - Living with Eagle
ES varies a bit with whether symptoms worsen- some people do find that things are bearable & it doesn’t progress, & they don’t need surgery, but often it does get worse to a point I’m afraid. As we age, our ligaments lose their elasticity & that can aggravate what structures the styloids compress. I didn’t have vascular symptoms, but then developed a prolapsed disc in my neck, & that caused the styloids to compress my jugular veins I think. Unfortunately surgery is the only cure for ES.
The best bet is for you to either get an appt with one of the doctors on our list- here’s link:
Doctor Lists – no discussion - Symptoms and Treatments / Doctor Information - Living with Eagle
or to send CTs to one of the doctors who does phone appts, like Dr Samji in CA or Dr Cognetti in PA . If you’ve not already had a recent CT, then I’d suggest trying to get one done. If you do have a CT, you can upload the images here & we can have a look- we’re not doctors but can tell if styloids look elongated or not- or you could get back on to the radiology dept where you had the CT & they might review it for ES for you.
I hope that this helps, & that you can get some answers soon!
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