Vertigo and dizziness have various causes, ranging from Meniere's disease and vestibular migraine to transient ischemic attacks and stroke (1,2). Up to 40% of patients with vertigo do not receive an explanatory diagnosis in primary healthcare setting and even specialist examination is unable to find out the etiology in some cases (3,4). Neurovascular compression syndromes (NVC) are caused by abnormal contact (usually a vascular loop) between a vessel and a cranial nerve in the cerebellopontine angle (CPA) (5).Trigeminal neuralgia and hemifacial spasm are the most...

One hundred fifty three consecutive patients underwent temporal MRI in our department. Pediatric patients, patients with pathologies that would explain their vertigo, patients that had undergone surgery within the cerebellopontine angle, patients with nondiagnostic images were excluded (n=28). The remaining 125 patients were included in the study. The experiment group consisted of patients with vertigo (n=58). Other patients (n=67) who had MRI for symptoms not related to the vestibulocochlear nerve (such as facial palsy) and asymptomatic sides of patients with unilateral symptoms (such as hearing...

Fifty-eight patients had vertigo and 67 patients were in the control group. AICA loops into the proximal or distal halves of the IAC were more common in the vertigo group (p=0.041) (Table 1). There was no difference in the type of contact among the two groups (p=0.264) (Table 2). Vascular contact at REZ was significantly more common in the vertigo group (p<0.001) (Table 3). There was good agreement between the two radiologists regarding vascular contact at REZ (K=0.650); but poor agreement in evaluation of the...

According to our study, AICA loops into the IAC and vascular contact at REZ are more common in patients with vertigo. To our knowledge, vascular contact at REZ by branches arising from AICA or PICA have not been previously studied. The relatively more frequent occurence of such a contact in patients with unexplained vertigo might be a potential cause for the pathology. However, even though our results demonstrate a correlation, care should be taken that this does not necessarily imply causation. There are case reports...

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