Which Vestibulopathy is Vertebral Artery Hypoplasia Related with in Vestibular Migraine?

A possible relationship between vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH) and vestibular migraine (VM) has been suggested at some medical conferences, few studies of this condition have elucidated which vestibulopathy is VAH associated with during the vestibular episodes of VM.

We performed a retrospective case-series control study to elucidate the above issue. From 2008 January to May 2010, 18 VM patients received magnetic resonance imaging. Of them, 44.4% (n=8) were the VAH subgroup and 55.6% (n=10) were the non-VAH subgroup. We reviewed the ictal electronystagmogram battery of the two subgroups. A Fisher's exact test was used with alpha of 0.01.

VAH was not more significantly prevalent in the VM patients than the non-VM ones. In the VM group, there was a significant difference in the 4 sub-divisions of vestibulopathy between the VAH and non-VAH subgroups (p=0.0096).

In this small neurotological study, VAH was closely related with central vestibulopathy rather than peripheral or mixed vestibulopathy so the topographic factor of VAH little influenced the ipsilateral peripheral vestibular labyrinth in the vestibular episodes of VM.