A POSSIBLE CORRELATION BETWEEN VERTEBRAL ARTERY INSUFFICIENCY AND DEGENERATIVE CHANGES IN THE CERVICAL-SPINE

We studied 130 patients, aged 20 to 81 years, with symptoms of tinnitu s, vertigo or dizziness. Radiological examinations revealed degenerati ve changes in the cervical spines of all patients such as discopathy o r osteophytes. Head and neck and neurological examinations ruled out o ther symptoms apart from vertebrobasilar artery flow insufficiency. Th e vertebrobasilar arteries were examined by means of a color Doppler u ltrasonograph using duplex scanning. The correlation coefficient (CC) defining the relationship between the number of patients with abnormal blood flow and the total number of patients with radiologically confi rmed changes in the cervical spine was 41.5%. When patients were separ ated by age, the value of the CC coefficient increased proportionally according to age, changing from 0 to 79.1%. Use of the Doppler ultraso nograph was found to be a safe and non-invasive diagnostic method that enabled us to assess the influence of degenerative changes in the cer vical spine on hemodynamic disturbances in the inner ear and brain ste m. Our findings demonstrated a pathological decrease of vertebral arte ry flow velocity in relationship to degenerative changes in the cervic al spine.