While direct-to-consumer whole-body MRI screening is criticised for overdiagnosis, this case report highlights an opposite risk: false reassurance. A case of a 75-year-old man with a 6.7 cm axillary melanoma metastasis found via a self-referred MRI is presented. A similar unindicated scan two years prior revealed a 2.4 cm lymph node but prompted no clinical follow-up. Consequently, massive tumour growth remained unnoticed. This illustrates the danger of separating imaging from clinical responsibility, inducing false reassurance and a two-year diagnostic delay.
Sudden bilateral hearing loss may have a vascular aetiology, especially in patients with vascular risk factors. A woman in her early 80s presented with total bilateral hearing loss, vertigo, and nausea, while on short-term dabigatran cessation. The cause was determined to be a thrombus in the basilar artery, at the level where both anterior inferior cerebellar arteries originate. A successful thrombectomy was performed. In this case report, we wish to elucidate the possibility of bilateral hearing loss being an initial presenting symptom of a stroke affecting the posterior circulation.
In this case report, a 15-year-old boy developed a cerebellar infarction following a nondisplaced C3 fracture after trampoline gymnastics. Initially presented with neck pain only, after two days he developed dizziness, headache, vomiting, and gait disturbance. CT showed a C3 fracture and cerebellar infarct. CT angiography revealed dissection of the right vertebral artery consistent with blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI). He was treated conservatively with cervical immobilization and antithrombotic therapy. The case highlights the risk of BCVI after minor neck trauma and the importance of early CT angiography.
