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What Causes Loud Noise In Ears?
Question: Firstly, thank you for making yourself available online like this. My mom is 82 yr old. She is a retired RN who remained actively working as a supervisor in the Kaiser system until she turned 72. She has serious asthma and coughs very hard when it acts up even worse due to a cold. This happened this summer. During a terrible coughing spell, she felt a serious sharp pain in her head and neck area. Subsequent checkups have revealed no obvious physical damage. She has had hearing aids for years and has experienced tinnitus. Lately she has begun to have bouts of terrible noise in her ears. Noise so loud she fears she won't be able to survive it. This is not tinnitus and she wonders if it could be linked to the coughing. So far we have found no way to silence this horrible noise save to pray it will quiet on its own, which it does, thank god. She is waiting an appt. with a specialist, but short of a diagnosis, I wonder if there are any known remedies to help her cope in the meantime. Thank you, in advance for your consideration.
Brief Answer:
As below:
Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Thank you for your query.
1. If the severe Tinnitus is related to turbulent blood flow, it may be due to a vascular problem.
2. She needs an urgent neck blood vessel doppler study, a MRI Temporal Bones + Cervical Spine and MR Angiogram.
3. Check whether the sounds are synchronous with the hear beats, if they change with positions of the head and neck. An auscultation of the neck and ear may pick up vascular bruit.
4. A Tinnitus with a very high scale is also possible at her age, if the above tests are within normal limits. Get her hearing tests, blood sugar levels and routine blood tests done. Her blood pressure must be recorded.
5. There is no specific medication if this Tinnitus is vascular in origin. If it is related to blood pressure or blood sugar fluctuations , these can be corrected.
6. You may share the investigation results for further treatment options.
If you have any further questions, I will be available to answer them.
Regards.
As below:
Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Thank you for your query.
1. If the severe Tinnitus is related to turbulent blood flow, it may be due to a vascular problem.
2. She needs an urgent neck blood vessel doppler study, a MRI Temporal Bones + Cervical Spine and MR Angiogram.
3. Check whether the sounds are synchronous with the hear beats, if they change with positions of the head and neck. An auscultation of the neck and ear may pick up vascular bruit.
4. A Tinnitus with a very high scale is also possible at her age, if the above tests are within normal limits. Get her hearing tests, blood sugar levels and routine blood tests done. Her blood pressure must be recorded.
5. There is no specific medication if this Tinnitus is vascular in origin. If it is related to blood pressure or blood sugar fluctuations , these can be corrected.
6. You may share the investigation results for further treatment options.
If you have any further questions, I will be available to answer them.
Regards.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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