Abstract
Seventy-two patients with dizziness or vertigo having C4-7 cervical disk disease had their systolic blood pressure (BP) measured before and after the head-up test with tonometry. We demonstrated that significant depression of the systolic BP was seen in the patient group compared with the normal group during the head-up test. There were 11 patients in whom vertigo or dizziness was induced by each head-up test, and all of them showed a BP depression of 19 mmHg or more. However, 26 patients had a BP depression of only 9 mmHg or less, which was within normal limits, and none showed vertigo or dizziness. It was considered whether the main cause of vertigo or dizziness induced by the head-up test among the patients with cervical lesion was BP depression. The other causes of vertigo or dizziness among the patients who showed BP depression of 18 mmHg or less could possibly be blood flow insufficiency in the brain stem, acoustic nerve ischemia, Powers syndrome, carotid artery stenosis, platelet hyper-aggregation or psychosomatic factors.
