Diagnostic Value Of Multislice Spiral CT Angiography In Vertebrobasilar Artery Ischemia Vertigo

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic value of Multi-slice spiral computed tomography angiography (MSCTA) in vertebro-basilar artery ischemia vertigo.Methods: We performed MSCTA by GE Discovery 16 Spiral CT system on 10 healthy volunteers (control group) and 35 patients with vertigo diseases proved to be vertebro-basilar artery insufficiency (VBAI) by transcranial Doppler (TCD). The CTA data were post-processed with VR, MPR and AVA, and the data of two groups were compared statistically by SPSS12.0 soft.Results: (1) The arterial total length of 70 vertebrobasilar arteries were displayed in varies reconstruction images, including 20 normal arteries, 50 abnormal arteries, and the later ones were 12 mild, 19 moderate, and 5 severe vertebral and / or basilar artery stenosis respectively, including 3 stenosis with kinkings and 4 stenosis with calcified plaques. On the other hand, 8 hypogenesis were revealed, and 6 kinkings were detected. The parts of atlas of vertebral arteries were not showed excellent in 8 arteries by VR. All vertebrobasilar arteries were showed total length with excellent results by AVA. (2) All cases in the control group show normal vertebrobasilar artery image and normal adjacent anatomic structures. (3) There are significant differences between mild group, moderate group, severe group and the control group. A significant difference is also found betweenmoderate group, severe group and mild group, (all p<0.05) Conclusion: By combining MSCT scanning with suitable postprocessing techniques, MSCTA can well display normal or abnormal vertebral and basilar arteries, as well as adjacent anatomic structures. It has an important clinical significance for the diagnosis of vertebrobasilar artery ischemia vertigo.Significance: MSCTA is a noninvasive method. It enables accurate evaluation vertebral and basilar arteries, and the relation between stenosis of vertebral arteries and the bony structures could be well depicted. When displaying sclerosis it can well depict the pressed location, etiology and degree of press of vertebrobasilar artery. Therefore, it has an important clinical significance for etiology study, prognosis judgement and guiding therapy of vertebrobasilar artery ischemia vertigo. And it provides a new pathway to evaluate vertebrobasilar artery noninvasively. As for convenience, feasibility and availability, MSCTA is an important examination method for the diagnosis of vertebrobasilar artery ischemia vertigo.