What Causes Severe Thumping Sound In The Ears?

Posted on Thu, 8 Dec 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 8 Dec 2016 Answered on

Mon, 26 Dec 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : For the past week or so I've had a thumping sound in my ears that seems to be mimicking my pulse. What is possibly causing this? I don't recall experiencing this before. I don't have any other symptoms of anything that seems amiss. Is this an ear issue?

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend performing some tests:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

Regarding your concern, I would explain that your symptoms could be related to different causes:

- high blood pressure
- chronic anemia
- an inner ear disorder
- thyroid dysfunction
- a brain arterial-venous malformation or dural fistula.

Coming to this point, I would recommend consulting with your attending physician for a careful physical exam and some tests:

- complete blood count
- thyroid hormone levels

Labyrinthine tests from an ENT specialist would help exclude an inner ear disorder.

A brain MRI may be needed if all the above tests result normal.

Meanwhile, I recommend you to closely monitor your blood pressure values during the day (in sitting position after 10 minutes of total relax) and refer those values to your doctor.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar