Incidental Findings during Extracranial Carotid Duplex: Two Cases of Carotid Body Tumors

Abstract

In Case 1, A 65-year-old man with a family history of carotid body paraganglioma and no other risk factors was referred to the noninvasive vascular laboratory for a carotid duplex with complaints of left eye amaurosis fugax. In Case 2, an 84-year-old woman with a history of hypertension and hyperlipidemia presented to the noninvasive vascular laboratory for carotid duplex under the suspicion of a right hemisphere transient ischemic attack. Duplex sonography of both cases recorded minimal <49% stenosis of both internal carotids. However, in Case 1, a homogenous mass was noted at the left carotid bifurcation, apparently fed by a branch of the external carotid artery, that later was confirmed by angiography to be a branch of the pharyngeal artery.