Unfortunately I am no further forward. I called my doctor's surgery on the 26th Feb and explained no one has been in touch. The practice manager called me back that afternoon and said they had chased the Neurologist. Dr Tyagi eventually called me on the 27th February to say the Neuroradiologist Dr Rod Gibson from the private hospital reviewed my scan and read Dr Shapiro's report and stated he understood the points raised but there was no definite evidence of vascular dissection and his view is unchanged and the MRA is normal. I was really upset by Dr Gibson's statement. I can see the MRA is not normal, you can clearly see the split through the artery it has created a double barrel lumen. Two weeks later I received the above statement in writing, strangely Dr Gibson seems to contradict himself by stating the vertebral artery is VERY tortuous at the point where Dr Shapiro discusses the possibility of the abnormality being a dissection or natural fenestration, however why does Dr Gibson not state this in his original report that the artery is very tortuous instead he stated the scan was normal and could find no findings to account for the pulsating sound in my head and my headaches.
Dr Tyagi agreed to a CTA which was carried out on Thurs 19th March. After 3 weeks I hadn't received my results and emailed him on the 8th April, I got a reply stating simply "I can confirm your CTA was normal, I will arrange a follow up appointment" It seems the report from Dr Shapiro did not exist and was being dismissed. Dr Tyagi also mentioned in his email I would get a copy of the report soon that was being sent by post. I sent a response back asking why I was so symptomatic if everything was normal, I also asked that while sending the report if he could include a copy on disc of the CTA. He responded back to me on the 14th April and said he would have it arranged to have a copy on disc and that he was sorry I was still having symptoms and would arrange a clinical review.
I have since found another assistant professor who is a Neurointerventialist in India and who has written a medical report on a patient with the same type of dissection as Dr Shapiro reported on mine. I tracked the doctor down to a hospital and emailed my symptoms and a few scan pictures not thinking I would get a response. The doctor responded with marking my images where the dissection was and stated my symptoms are due to the nerve damage of surrounding tissues structures being compressed due to the artery being larger caused by the false lumen and that some of my symptoms for example my balance being off is due to reduced blood flow because of the two channels being created by the dissection. This doctor has dealt with patients who have experienced symptoms the same as mine. Eventually I was getting some sort of acknowledgement for my suffering be it from the other side of the world in India. The doctor asked that I send all my images which I have done and I now await a further reply. Hopefully once I have this doctor's report doctors here in Scotland will believe me and offer to help me of these debilitating symptoms.
Thank you for reading my pathetic but desperate posts.
Whirring Wanderer
