---
title: "What's your Medical Diagnosis: Neck Pain, Hoarseness, Dysphagia"
description: Test your medical diagnosis skills with an NEJM case and see how Isabel diagnosis tool compares. Get a free trial and read the Diagnosis White Paper.
image: https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/hs-fs/file-17422300-jpg/images/images-1-resized-600.jpg
---

August 15, 2012

# What's your Medical Diagnosis: Neck Pain, Hoarseness, Dysphagia

The [Isabel diagnosis ](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/bid/130115/demo-request/)tool touts an extensive database of conditions for differential diagnosis support, and we often will test its accuracy with real patient cases from the New England Journal of Medicine.

## About the Isabel Diagnosis Challenge

The [**New England Journal of Medicine**](http://content.nejm.org/) (NEJM) publishes interesting presentations of common diseases and unusual cases in the Clinical pathology Conference (CPC) series. These cases are educational and can pose diagnostic challenges even to the expert physicians at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

[![New England Journal of Medicine](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/hs-fs/file-17422300-jpg/images/images-1-resized-600.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=images-1-resized-600.jpg)](http://nejm.org/)Using the clinical features of these cases you can evaluate your own diagnostic skills and compare your diagnostic performance to that of the physicians at MGH. If you are registered with Isabel as a client or have a free-trial subscription, you can use the diagnosis reminder system and run through some scenarios to get a list of likely suspects. Clicking on a diagnosis will take you through to various knowledge sources and links available from within Isabel.

## Today's Case

NEJM 12:18

**Demographic**: Male, 35y, Neckpain, Hoarseness, Dysphagia, North America  
**Clinical features:**

- right sided neck pain
- dysphagia
- hoarseness
- teeth pain radiating to ear
- blurred vision
- unsteadiness
- difficulty moving tongue to the right
- right horner’s syndrome

**STOP! Before you read further, create your own differential diagnosis.**

**Differential Diagnoses considered by the MGH panel**: Transient ischemic attack

**Final Diagnosis of the case according to NEJM and Isabel:** Villaret’s syndrome (ipsilateral paralysis of the 9th thrpugh 12th cranial nerves and cervical sympathetic fibers) due to a carotid-artery dissection and an associated aneurysm.

**Was the final diagnosis given by the Isabel system: Yes**, Carotid artery dissection under arterial aneurysms in Vascular

[![NEJM case 18](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/hs-fs/file-17426575-gif/images/nejm_case_18_2012-resized-600.gif)](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/see-the-new-video-clients-succeed-with-isabel-lakewood-family-medicine/)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[![Download White Paper](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/133692/b16a24c1-2685-4b14-8ab2-be29afd4507f.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/133692/b16a24c1-2685-4b14-8ab2-be29afd4507f)

[![Share on Facebook](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/facebook-24x24.png)](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Finfo.isabelhealthcare.com%2Fblog%2Fmedical-diagnosis-neck-pain-hoarseness-dysphagia%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook) [![Share on LinkedIn](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/linkedin-24x24.png)](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Finfo.isabelhealthcare.com%2Fblog%2Fmedical-diagnosis-neck-pain-hoarseness-dysphagia%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dlinkedin) [![Share on Twitter](https://static.hubspot.com/final/img/common/icons/social/twitter-24x24.png)](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Finfo.isabelhealthcare.com%2Fblog%2Fmedical-diagnosis-neck-pain-hoarseness-dysphagia%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&url=https%3A%2F%2Finfo.isabelhealthcare.com%2Fblog%2Fmedical-diagnosis-neck-pain-hoarseness-dysphagia%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter&source=tweetbutton&text=What%27s%20your%20Medical%20Diagnosis%3A%20Neck%20Pain%2C%20Hoarseness%2C%20Dysphagia)

### Subscribe Here!

### Recent Posts

### [Meningococcal Infections: The Ongoing Need for Early Diagnosis in the UK (2026 Update)](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/meningococcal-infections-the-ongoing-need-for-early-diagnosis-in-the-uk-2026-update)

 Meningococcal infections (including meningococcal meningitis, meningococcal septicaemia, and..

### [Isabel DDx Companion with ChatGPT Integration - to help you diagnose even faster](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/introducing-isabel-ddx-companion-with-llm-for-clinicians)

 At Isabel Healthcare, we’ve always been driven by one goal: to make clinical reasoning faster,..

### List Of Categories

- [Differential Diagnosis Decision Support](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/differential-diagnosis-decision-support)
- [Differential diagnosis](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/differential-diagnosis)
- [Symptom Checker](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/symptom-checker)
- [Symptoms](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/symptoms)
- [Patient Disease Information](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/patient-disease-information)
- [Medical Error](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/medical-error)
- [Disease](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/disease)
- [Clinical Decision Support](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/clinical-decision-support)
- [Diagnostic Decision Support](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/diagnostic-decision-support)
- [Isabel 1 Minute Read](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/isabel-1-minute-read)
- [Diagnosis Error](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/diagnosis-error)
- [Diagnosis Skills Cases](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/diagnosis-skills-cases)
- [Healthcare Informatics](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/healthcare-informatics)
- [Clinical Reasoning](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/clinical-reasoning)
- [Evidence-based Medicine](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/evidence-based-medicine)
- [Medical Education](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/medical-education)
- [Patient Engagement](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/patient-engagement)
- [Symptom Triage](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/symptom-triage)
- [Nurse Practitioner Education](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/nurse-practitioner-education)
- [Nursing Decision Support](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/nursing-decision-support)
- [Partnership](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/partnership)
- [Public Health](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/public-health)
- [COVID-19](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/covid-19)
- [EHR](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/ehr)
- [Patient Empowerment](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/patient-empowerment)
- [Patient Safety](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/patient-safety)
- [rare disease](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/topic/rare-disease)

![CTA_Blog_image](https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/hubfs/CTA%20image.jpg)

## Start your FREE Trial today

Try the Isabel Pro DDx generator for 30-days - no payment card details required. 

[Try it Now

](https://www.isabelhealthcare.com/home/pricing)

- [![facebook](https://www.isabelhealthcare.com/assets/home/fb-e4c2ff7015119ef0f67fb1f8ca2a631e4d2b186be6bbe6fa773f30c2b8de9a87.png)](https://www.facebook.com/isabelhealthcare/)
- [![linkedin](https://www.isabelhealthcare.com/assets/home/in-d5a6549a505052a68f4acc5a9e253392d679d854fd9fb370b85de1a0932dc0ae.png)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/isabel-healthcare)
- [![twitter](https://www.isabelhealthcare.com/assets/home/twitter_x-392989d145f2d4d1a07ba6247d30d63dc446139a774a2815194ad7789743d657.png)](https://twitter.com/IsabelHealth)
- [![youtube](https://www.isabelhealthcare.com/assets/home/youtube-e851be3819ac351ca0d22f0213e30db55213dc94c261d024d09601910478dc22.png)](https://www.youtube.com/user/IsabelHealthcare100)

- [Privacy Policy](https://uk.isabelhealthcare.com/privacy-policy)
- [Terms & Conditions](https://uk.isabelhealthcare.com/terms-conditions)
- [Contact us](https://uk.isabelhealthcare.com/contact-isabel-healthcare)
- ©Isabel Healthcare 2025

```json
{
  "@context" : "https://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Megan Pennie",
    "url" : "https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/author/megan-pennie"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2021-03-19T21:49:13.344Z",
  "datePublished" : "2012-08-15T15:52:00.000Z",
  "headline" : "What's your Medical Diagnosis: Neck Pain, Hoarseness, Dysphagia",
  "image" : [ "https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/hs-fs/file-17422300-jpg/images/images-1-resized-600.jpg" ],
  "mainEntityOfPage" : {
    "@id" : "https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/blog/medical-diagnosis-neck-pain-hoarseness-dysphagia",
    "@type" : "WebPage"
  },
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "url" : "https://info.isabelhealthcare.com/hubfs/new%20PRO%20logo%20blue%20small.png"
    },
    "name" : "Isabel Healthcare"
  }
}
```