Aim To study the prevalence of extracranial carotid artery stenosis with magnetic resonance angiography(MRA) in 105 patients of vertebrobasilar artery ischemic and/or transient ischemic attack.Methods105 patients according to ages were divided into 30～55 years group,56～70 years group and 71～89 years group.Thirty-five asymptomatic patients were regarded as control subjects.All patients were undergone with time of flight of MRA(TOF-MRA) and contrast enhanced MRA(CE-MRA).ResultsTOF-MRA and CE-MRA showed that the most common stenosis location in order was in proximal vertebral artery,the intercranial branch of vertebral artery,whole vertebral artery,vertebral artery tortuous or sclerosis,intercratoid artery and common cratoid artery.And the prevalence of extracranial carotid artery stenosis in order as aboved was 30.77%,25.64%,28.21%,7.69%,7.69%,0% in 30～55 years group;36.59%,19.51%,14.63%,17.07%,9.76%,2.44% in 56～70 years group;27.66%,10.64%,12.76%,23.40%,19.15%,6.38% in 71～89 years group,respectively.ConclusionsThe prevalence of stenosis in proximal vertebral artery of extracranial carotid artery was higher than that of other location.The prevalence of atherosclerosis in vertebral artery and carotid artery increased with the ages.MRA is a useful and valuable tool to show extracarnial carotid artery stenosis.