Application Of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound In Detecting Luschka Joint Osteophyte And Its Impact On Vertebral Artery: A Clinical Study

Objective: To real-time dynamically detect Luschka joint osteophyteand its impact on the form and hemodynamic of vertebral artery bymusculoskeletal ultrasound. And preliminarily analyse the relationshipbetween cervical vertigo and the mechanical compression on vertebral arteryfrom Luschka joint. To lay a foundation for the clinical application of MSUSin cervical spondylosis etiological diagnosis.Methods: A total of160subjects brought into three groups, includinggroup I: cervical spondylosis group of60people; Group II: cervicalspondylosis with cervical vertigo group of60people; group III: controlgroup of40people. All subjects underwent MSUS, exploring if there islateral osteophyte on the Luschka joint and measuring the osteophyte size.Then, subjects with lateral osteophyte should be observed the impact ofosteophyte on vertebral artery form and measured PSV、EDV、RI byDoppler ultrasonography. Tortuous VA with compression from Luschka joint needed to be measured at, before and after the tortuosity. Paired T testwas used to compare the differences of each set of parameters. Finally, afourfold table recorded the constitution of people with or without cervicalvertigo and if their vertebral artery were out of shape. Chi-square test wasused to evaluate the corelation between two variables and to calculate theodds ratio (OR).Results: There were76people with99hyperplasia joints. The numberof each cervical segment from C2/3to C5/6were2,19,46,32, with the largestosteophyte5mm wide. The impact of osteophyte on the form of VA dividedinto3levels: level1(VA straight), level2(VA tortuosity without stenosis),level3(VA stenosis). There were29segment of VA is tortuous. PSV,EDVand RI at tortuosity were significantly increased compared to those beforetortuosity (P<0.001，α=0.05); while the indexes were out of statisticallydifference comparing them before and after tortuosity (P>0.05，α=0.05).There’s a statistical association between the compression on VA fromLuschka joint and the cervical vertigo symptom. Unconsidering theconfounding factors, those whose VA is compressed by the Luschka jointosteophyte had a2.94times higher risk to endure cervical vertigo(OR=2.94，Χ2=6.562，95%CI=1.29~6.72，P=0.01，α=0.05).Conclusion:1MSUS showed Luschka joint osteophyte and its impacton the adjacent vertebral artery clearly. It was simple to operate, andrepeatable.2The hemodynamic changed when VA was compressed to out of shape by Luschka joint.3There’s a statistical association between thecompression on VA from Luschka joint and the cervical vertigo symptom.