What are the most sensitive CT signs of vocal cord palsy?
Ipsilateral pyriform sinus dilatation, medial rotation and thickening of the aryepiglottic fold, ipsilateral laryngeal ventricle dilatation.
Name few primary thoracic neoplasms that can cause vocal cord palsy.
Bronchogenic carcinoma, thymic and thyroid malignancies, oesophageal cancer, neurogenic tumors like paraganglionomas and schwannomas.
What is the pitfall of FDG PET CT imaging in vocal cord palsy?
Asymmetric increased uptake is identified in the normal cord in unilateral vocal cord palsy due to compensation and hypertrophy of non paralysed muscles and should not be mistaken as abnormal glucose uptake.
Classically described findings of left vocal cord palsy
- medialization of left vocal cord.
- ipsilateral ventricle/pyriform sinus dilatation.
Large aneurysm of the arch of aorta with thick peripheral thrombus. There is accompanying extensive intimal medial calcification in the thoracic aorta as well the major branches extensively involving both common carotid arteries.
Moderate left pleural effusion.
Nodular thyroid gland more on the left side.
No supraglottic / glottic / subglottic mass lesions.