Ultrasound evaluation of carotid body tumours

Abstract

Carotid body tumour (CBT) is a rare neoplasm that usually presents as an asymptomatic slow-growing neck mass at the carotid bifurcation. Due to these benign attributes, CBTs often go undiagnosed for a few years before a lateral neck mass becomes clinically obvious or is found incidentally on imaging. Herein we report one such patient with unilateral CBT incidentally diagnosed on ultrasound and we describe its characteristic sonographic features of a hypervascular mass splaying the carotid bifurcation. Duplex sonography is increasingly used as the first-line non-invasive investigative tool of choice for the primary diagnosis of CBTs and additionally may be used as a reliable cost-effective tool in the sequential follow-up of non-operatively managed tumours.