Learning objectives
The main objective of this communication is to establish a correlation between the clinical and radiological findings for different diseases of the middle ear in which the tympanic membrane remains intact,
especially for retrotympanic lesions that are associated with abnormal coloring of the eardrum on otoscopy.
Background
Retrotympanic lesions are usually discovered during otoscopic examination for hearing loss,
otalgia,
or tinnitus.
Most of these lesions are associated with abnormal whitish,
reddish,
or bluish coloring of the eardrum,
and the coloring helps limit the differential diagnosis.(Fig. 1)
√ A whitish eardrum: usually suggests congenital cholesteatoma; other diagnoses like primary tumors of the middle ear are less common.
√A reddish eardrum: the paragangliomas are most likely,
though vascular malformations are also possible.
√A bluish eardrum: suggests different diagnoses like a dehiscent jugular bulb,
a...
Imaging findings OR Procedure details
_ _RED EARDRUM_ _
1- TYMPANIC AND JUGULAR GLOMUS:
The extraadrenal neuroendocrine system is a complex system made up of chemoregulating tissues dispersed throughout the body.
An isolated focus of such tissue is a paraganglion,
and all these foci considered together constitute the paraganglia.
Paragangliomas are tumors originating in the paraganglia.
As such,
they can occur in many different sites.
Within the head and neck,
the four most common sites are the carotid body at the level of the carotid bifurcation (carotid glomus),
the jugular...
Conclusion
In retrotympanic lesions,
it is fundamental to analyze the clinical and otoscopic findings,
especially the color of the eardrum,
together with the imaging findings.
We present three tables that summarize the most useful findings for the main conditions described in this poster:
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Radiologic evaluation...
