Ever hear a ‘heartbeat’ in your ear? Experts warn it could be a hidden sign of a deadly condition
Have you ever noticed a rhythmic thudding noise in your ear? Doctors warn it could be a little-known sign of a life threatening emergency.
Pulsatile tinnitus (PT) is a condition where patients hear a strange ‘whooshing’ or the ‘sound’ of their own pulse beating in their ears.
Although it may be tempting to brush this off — medics warn that it could be a sign of a potentially deadly bulge in a blood vessel, or a tumour in your head or neck.
Dr Ahmed Abd Elbary explained while most PT cases are due to a relatively minor health problems, such as an overactive thyroid, anaemia or even pregnancy — it can also be a sign of something more serious.
‘If you have got this, it is something you should definitely bring up with your doctor,’ he warned.
In a video shared with his 326,000 TikTok followers he explained that PT was typically a result of ‘changing blood flow in the small blood vessels inside your ear’.
He warned this could potentially indicate someone had an aneurysm — a dangerous bulging of a blood vessel that can be fatal.
‘Sometimes, your blood flow can become more turbulent, and the most common causes for this are things like aneurysms and atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries).
Pulsate tinnitus (PT) is a condition that causes people to experience a strange whooshing or pulse in their ears that usually matches up to their heartbeat
Aneurysms can develop in any blood vessel in the body but can be particularity deadly if they occur, and burst, in the brain.
This can cause a subarachnoid haemorrhage, a type of stroke which can cause serious and sometimes fatal brain damage.
An estimated one in 15,000 people suffer a ruptured brain aneurysm in England each year.
Dr Ahmed added that PT can also potentially indicate you have a tumour in your head or neck.
‘You can also get something called localised increased blood flow which means a particular blood vessel has an increased supply to it. This most often is down to a tumour,’ he added.
However, he added that most of the tumours associated with PT are benign, meaning they don’t have the potential to spread to other parts of the body.
Dr Ahmed explained PT generally goes away once the issue causing it is addressed.
Tinnitus is the name for hearing noises, such as ringing, buzzing or hissing, that are not caused by an outside source, according to the NHS.
It affects 7.6 million people in the UK and PT specifically affects about 10 per cent of people with tinnitus.
There are many different types of tinnitus and the volume can vary from one episode to the next.
