Bisystolic Vertebral Artery: Critical Finding or can be Ignored?

The carotid Doppler imaging findings in three adults presenting with vertigo, transient speech difficulty and for cardiac prebypass graft surgery revealing two systolic peaks in one of the vertebral arteries. In presteal situations, vertebral artery waveform shows two systolic peaks with sharp first and rounded second systolic peak or two systolic peaks with a deep cleft between the two peaks with antegrade flow. With increase in stenosis to more than 80% there is bidirectional flow and later flow reversal. We discuss the types of presteal vertebral artery waveforms, its clinical implications and brief review of literature.