Head and Neck ImagingCarotid body tumour
relatively rare
neoplasm originating in the chemoreceptor tissue of the carotid body, with a usually
benign clinical behaviour. Carotid body
tumour is the most frequent
chemodectoma. The carotid body is usually situated at the fork of the common carotid
artery. The
tumour in general produces nonspecific symptoms, a soft tissue mass being the most frequent finding. The mass may grow upwards into the
parapharyngeal space, producing bulging of the oropharyngeal wall. Pain may be present when the mass encroaches on the cranial nerves in the
carotid space. The radiological diagnosis is usually straightforward: a strongly enhancing mass
lesion splaying the internal and external carotid
artery is seen, with intralesional signal voids on
MRI (
Fig.1). Arteriography shows the typical image of a hypervascular
tumour in the bifurcation of the common carotid
artery, but is not usually needed in the diagnostic work-up. Not all soft tissue masses in the carotid bifurcation correspond to a carotid body
tumour; see
neurogenic tumour, head and neck (VI:2), Fig. 1.
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Axial T1-weighted spin-echo image shows enhancing mass lesion splaying the internal (arrowhead) and external carotid artery (arrow), displaying intratumoral signal voids.
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Carotid body tumour, Fig.1 | |