Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and brain-stem in elderly patients with dizziness

Twenty elderly patients (mean age 82 years) with dizziness were examined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The findings have been compared with those from nine healthy subjects of similar age who acted as a control group. The technique proved acceptable to all these patients, and in the majority (65%) the overall radiographic quality of the resulting images was adequate, good or excellent. Nineteen of the 20 patients showed evidence of abnormal high signal intensity within white matter, often close to the frontal horns but also more widely scattered within the cerebral hemispheres; similar lesions were seen in the brain-stem in eight of the patients. However these white matter changes were equally prevalent in the control group. No cause for dizziness has been shown by MRI.