morphological changes of anterior cerebral (aca) artery in hydrocephalic pediatric patients

objective: the morphology of anterior cerebral artery (aca) in patients with hydrocephalus was analyzed (hcp), and its importance was discussed in maintaining cerebral perfusion. materials & methods: two groups were created for the study. group 1; patients with hydrocephalus and group 2; as control group without hcp. in both groups, the length of the a2 segment of aca was measured from its origin to the junction of the genu and body portions of the corpus callosum on t2 mid-sagittal magnetic resonance (mr) scans. for all cases, axial mr imaging scans were used to calculate evans’ index (ei), and the cases were divided into three groups: group a, ei ≥50%; group b, ei of 40-50% and group c, ei <40%. the two groups (groups 1 and 2) were compared with respect to aca length, and the correlation with the ei was quantified. p values below 0.05 were considered statistically significant. results: mean length of aca was 57.3 mm in group 1 and 37.5 mm in group 2. ei increased as the length of aca increased. a statistical comparison of the two groups revealed that the aca length was significantly greater in group 1 (p<0.05). the relationship between ei and aca length was statistically significant (p<0.05). conclusions morphological changes of aca became more prominent as the ei increased, in hydrocephalic patients. consequently, reducing ventricular size appears to be an important factor in addition to reducing intracranial pressure in an attempt to maintain normal cp.