Presentation
Patient presented complaining of a mass in the left side of the neck.
Patient Data
US images show a hypoechoic and heterogeneous mass. Color Doppler demonstrates a highly vascular pattern.
There is a highly vascular mass measuring 3.6 x 3.3 cm in the left carotid space situated between and splaying the external and internal carotid arteries (the lyre sign).
The external carotid artery is totally encased by the tumor, the internal carotid artery is not completely encased. Albeit that, both arteries do not show signs of narrowing of their lumens.
Case Discussion
The carotid body tumor is one of the commonest paragangliomas of the neck.
This tumor originates from cells located at the bifurcation of the common carotid artery. The tumor causes the splaying of the external and internal carotid arteries, causing the radiological sign known as the lyre sign.
Usually, there are no symptoms, just a palpable and pulsatile mass in the neck, due to its high vascularity.
There are cases in which the tumor is bilateral, this is more common in familial cases than sporadical cases.