(I asked this same question on Yahoo! Answers, but to be safe, I'll ask it here, too. *Ahem*) I have a disease called "Vocal Cord Dysfunction," which has caused a great amount of stress both within myself and between me and my family. I believe that the disease itself is being complicated by irritation caused by small amounts of mucus or phlegm continually getting "lodged," for lack of a better term, in my sinuses. However, while I can feel the substance pushing into the back of my sinuses, and I can even sniff and then spit some of it out under the right circumstances (thus proving it's there), the CT scan I had done on my head showed nothing "abnormal," which my mother keeps reminding me of in what seems to be an attempt to blame me for my own suffering. As such, I would like to know exactly what sorts of things can show up during a CT scan.
You should see a ENT (ear nose and throat) doctor and they can use a endoscope to see inside your throat. I've had that done and it doesn't hurt at all because they anesthetize you.
I've done all that, and multiple times, at that. Each time, the results were that the ENT doctor couldn't find anything abnormal, beyond some traces of irritation. In addition, I had gone through vocal therapy sessions with a speech therapist at the same office; after applying each therapeutic technique as instructed (and such that I impressed even her during the use of said techniques, which unfortunately DOESN'T mean that they're working), I was discharged from her care with the conclusion that there was nothing more she could do for me. On a side note, would it be possible for the anesthesia to interfere with the results of the endoscopy? The sinus issue isn't the only thing I suspect is contributing to my problems, after all; I have high-functioning Autism, which, among other things, means that I have extremely sensitive nerves, and I have considered the possibility that this factor may be complicating the issue as well, which is supported by the speech therapist's idea that stress will cause more irritation on its own. Basically, I'm wondering if the use of anesthesia, having interfered with my nerves' usual functioning, would lead to the observations during the endoscopy being non-representative of my usual condition.
CT scans are primarily used for detection of malignancy, or structural deviancy. Because your issue as you have described thus far is mostly having to do with sinus irritation, it's hard to say exactly what a CT scan would tell you. I would always trust a physician more than myself - their licensure is no menial task, and you shouldn't go on the internet gallivanting about alternative diagnoses. If your doctor tells you that there isn't a problem - believe him, there isn't one. I would, however, recommend that you use some decongestants (IE mucinex, saline spray) or even a humidifier if it helps you.
Note that everyone has a small amount of mucus lodged in their sinuses. If it's bothering you, of course, then it's a problem to be looked at - but a CT will just show mucus there, which is normal. It basically shows you everything an Xray will show but with better spatial resolution.
How about MRI instead? I think its more detailed than CT Scan. No medical background but speaking from experience. Please feel free to correct me.
No need of correction - you are correct. MRI has better special resolution, discrimintates different tissues better and does does not cause any harm. CT is fine X-ray beam sent thru body parts being examined. Any one beam just gives the net absorption along it path, but with many beams at different angles this data can be "backed out" (by a computer program) to build a model of how radio opaque small (<1 cc) volumes of the body are. MRI uses a very strong and very uniform magnetic field. It alines the spin related magnetic moments of isolated protons. Then a RF field make these magnetic monemts rotate about the magnetic field lines - all protons in same local conditions resonate with the RF field - come into the same phase. When the RF is turned off, the cyclotron rotations becomes disorganized and this makes the detected RF signal. The receiver of this signal is like a direction finder - tells where it is coming from with spatial resolution. Only the protons in a certain environment resonate when the RF field was "driving" them. Thus the spatially resolved signal is only from sub set of protons with the same local environment / chemistry. Change the drive pulse RF frequency a little and get same data for a set of protons in another local environment. etc. MRI takes longer than CT scan and the equipment is much more expensive. Originally MRI was used by chemist to get better understanding of molecular compounds.* Back then it was call NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). But when doctors stated to use it they changed the name as no patients wanted a "Nuclear Test" applied to their bodies. * I'm not sure, but think the chemists used NMR on nuclei other than protons too. - Any nucleus with non-zero spin (magnetic moment) should work but some resonant frequencies and / or magnetic field may not be convenient. Their machines were much cheaper as uniform magnetic field was only needed for tiny sample, not volume of human body. Also their sample was uniform - no need for spatial resolution. - Just relative signal strength data. Human body has lot of H2O, each molecule with two protons that can be aligned. BTW: In recent visit to the not acute but emergency area of USP's clinic, I saw large strange medical machine, not in use - just parked in a hallway. I studied it. Definitely a dual head X-ray with complex film holder. I'm almost sure it was "stereoscopic X-ray machine" - I did not know they existed and there was no one near it I could ask. I don't see any reason why it could not be that and give a quasi-3D view instead of just the normal X-ray's 2D shadow graph.
