Occlusion of the vertebral arteries. Causing transient basilar symptoms.

Abstract

IN A clinicopathologic study of 178 cases of atherosclerosis of the vertebral and carotid arteries, 1 infarction in the vertebral-basilar territory was related to occlusive disease situated intracranially . This was in contrast to the findings in infarction in the territory of the internal carotid artery in which the occlusions lay predominantly extracranially . The number of cases of infarction was small, and generalizations were unwarranted, but we were prompted to make further observations on the tolerance of the cerebral circulation to a reducion in the forward blood flow through the extracranial vertebral arteries bilaterally . Since postmortem examination fails to provide information about hemodynamics, attention has been focused on cases studied arteriographically during life, with particular regard to the pathway by which the intracranial vertebral-basilar system is supplied. Bilateral extracranial vertebral compromise results from occlusion or stenosis of both vertebral arteries, or of one vertebral artery when the other is vestigial