Vertebral artery is one of the arteries supplying the brain. Knowledge of the normal and variant anatomy of the vertebral artery assumes importance in clinical practice and vascular radiology. Anomalous origins of the vertebral artery from the arch of the aorta or any one of the arteries of the neck have been reported by several authors. In this report a variation of the prevertebral course of ...

Dissecting aneurysms of the vertebrobasilar system are infrequent. Most of the commonly reported cases describe iatrogenic or traumatic aneurysms of the extracranial vertebral artery. Spontaneous dissecting aneurysms of the extracranial vertebral artery are frequently associated with carotid artery lesions; however, such association is poorly documented in the literature. We describe a case of ...

Because of their anatomical localization, vertebral arteries were neglected in research for a long period of time. Vertebral arteries are responsible for about 30% of the brain blood supply. The aim of this study was to examine the vertebral artery's course in the first segment, and to define the anatomic variations and percentage of their appearance in the adult population using CT angiography...

A rare abnormality of the vertebral artery is described in a 63-year-old male. The right vertebral artery consisted of several minute endothelial lined channels which failed to perfuse at autopsy. The anterior spinal artery showed areas of muscular media dysplasia. These anomalies were associated with large posterior communicating arteries. The terminal event was precipitated by thrombotic occl...

We present the case of a comatose patient with acute large infarction of posterior cerebral and cerebellar areas and severe hyperthermia (max. 40.4 degrees C). Angiography demonstrated four-vessel occlusion of the main cerebral arteries, suggesting the possibility that both internal carotid and left vertebral arteries were already occluded and he became unconscious following additional occlusio...

Background: Knowledge of variations in the origin of vertebral artery (VA) is indispensable to vascular surgeons. Aberrant origin of vertebral artery on either side is an uncommon finding. There are unilateral and bilateral variability in VA origin. Case presentation: We present a case of vertebral artery dissection who was found to have bilateral VAs aberrant origin. The right VA took origin ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We tested the hypothesis that posterior brain arteries differ pathologically from anterior brain arteries and that this difference varies with age. METHODS Brain large arteries from 194 autopsied individuals (mean age 56±17 years, 63% men, 25% nonwhite, 17% with brain infarcts) were analyzed to obtain the areas of arterial layers and lumen as well as the relative conten...

We report the case of a 36 year-old woman who presented occlusion of a basilar artery fusiform aneurysm (FA) associated with pontine infarction, and two episodes of subarachnoid hemorrhage possibly due to arterial dissection. She also had asymptomatic FAs in the right middle cerebral and left internal carotid arteries. Over 5 years, lesions suggestive of fibromuscular dysplasia in the right ver...

Persistent proatlantal artery type 1 is one of the four anastomotic vessels between the carotid and vertebrobasilar arterial systems. Persistence of this embryonic anastomosis is extremely rare. We present such a case with bilateral persistent proatlantal arteries that arose from internal carotid arteries, entered the skull via the foramen magnum and united with the horizontal portions of verte...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE We report 6 cases of retrograde flow through the anterior spinal artery (ASA) from cervical vertebral artery (VA) to intracranial distal VA because the perfusion from bilateral vertebral arteries was tenuous. Its hemodynamic and clinical implications are discussed. METHODS In association with bilateral steno-occlusive disease of vertebral arteries, 6 cases of retrograde...