The relationship between isolated dizziness/vertigo and the risk factors of ischemic stroke: a case control study.

PURPOSE: Dizziness/vertigo are important public heath care issues especially in elderly patients. Isolated dizziness/vertigo without neurological deficits has seldom been considered a symptom/sign due to vascular origin. Recently, some studies have suggested that vascular origin should be considered in cases of positional vertigo and isolated vertigo or dizziness when the etiology remains unclear. In this study, we tried to delineate the correlation of dizziness/vertigo and risk factors of stroke.

METHODS: We collected adult subjects receiving health screening of the brain at their own expense. All subjects had undergone brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and carotid duplex. The chief complaints, body height, body weight, waist circumference and blood pressure of all subjects were recorded. Most received blood tests including fasting sugar, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein, high density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides, and uric acid (UA). The relationships between dizziness/vertigo and blood test data, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, metabolic syndrome, carotid duplex, silent brain infarction, leukoaraiosis and MRA were analyzed.

RESULTS: After exclusion, a total of 170 out of 210 subjects were collected. The analysis revealed that dizziness/ vertigo had a significant correlation to age, UA , BMI, male HDL and female waist circumference. Among them, female waist circumference had the highest statistical significance (P = 0.001). Leukoaraiosis on brain MRI also had a close relationship with dizziness/vertigo.

CONCLUSION: After careful examination and approach, a vascular origin should be considered in dizzy patients of unknown etiology.