Carotidynia in a Patient Receiving an Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: A Case Report to Support a Disputed Entity

Introduction

Carotidynia was originally described by Fay in 1927 [T. Fay Arch Neurol Psychiatry 1927; 18:309–15] as an atypical neuralgia consisting of pain and tenderness at the level of the carotid bifurcation. It was classified by the International Headache Society (IHS) in 1988 as a self-limiting syndrome comprising unilateral neck pain, tenderness over the carotid bifurcation, and absence of structural abnormalities, but was then removed in 2004 as a distinct disease since further research indicated that it should be regarded as a syndrome encompassing other distinct disease processes in the carotid region. Case reports [F. Comacchio et al. Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital. 2012; 32(4): 266–9] have since described similar clinical presentations of neck pain and tenderness over the carotid bifurcation of unknown etiology, where patients undergo spontaneous remission, and imaging studies often agree on findings of perivascular inflammation, luminal integrity, and normal blood flow in the affected carotid [N. Kosaka et al. Eur Radiol. 2007;17(9):2430-3] - supporting the existence of carotidynia as a distinct entity.

We present a case report of carotidynia in a patient undergoing an allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) with non-myeloablative conditioning where ultrasound (US) examinations and computed tomography (CT) angiography revealed the above-mentioned findings.