Cerebral blood flow and hemodynamics in patients with dizziness resulting from central nervous system disorders

To investigate the changes in regional cerebral blood flow (RCBF) and cerebral hemodynamics in patients with dizziness resulted from disorders of the central nervous system.

Using 133Xe inhalation technique and transcranial Doppler ultrasonography(TCD), we measured RCBF and blood flow velocity in the major cerebral arteries in 86 such patients with dizziness, who were divided into persisting and intermittent groups according to the symptoms. Another 86 normal adult subjects were also included as the control group. All the patients were free from cerebral structural abnormalities as demonstrated by CT or magnetic resonance imaging.

Decreased RCBF was found in 60.5% of the patients with also lowered cerebral blood flow velocity, and the abnormalities appeared more serious when the dizziness persisted. The RCBF in the cerebral hemisphere and each cerebral lobes, along with the blood velocity in the cerebral arteries, was significantly lower in the 2 patient groups than in the control group.

Measurement of RCBF and cerebral blood velocity in patients with central nervous system-related dizziness but without cerebral structural changes may facilitate the assessment of the degree of pathological changes in RCBF and hemodynamics in the affected area and help to better understand the patterns of these changes, which may consequently assist clinical decisions on the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.