Pulsatile tinnitus

What it means

Pulsatile tinnitus is generally classified a kind of objective tinnitus, meaning that it is not only audible to the patient but also to the examiner on auscultation of the auditory canal and/or of surrounding structures with use of an auscultation tube or stethoscope. Usually, pulsatile tinnitus is heard as a lower pitched thumping or booming, a rougher blowing sound which is coincidental with respiration, or as a clicking, higher pitched rhythmic sensation.

Pulsatile tinnitus may be associated with vascular abnormalities such as arterioevenous shunts or glomus tumors or the jugular vein, arterial bruits related to a high-riding carotid artery (close to the auditory areas) or carotid stenosis, or venous abnormalities such as a dehiscent jugular bulb or to hypertension. Finally, in some patients, mechanical abnormalities such patulous eustachian tubes, palatomyoclonus (small spasms of muscles in the soft palate area), or idiopathic stapedial muscle spasm may represent the underlying cause of pulsatile tinnitus.

Rare diseases that can present with this5

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category