Purpose
The aorta,
aortic arch and its branches develop through a complex process in the fetus during the first few weeks of development.
The standard anatomical configuration described in anatomy texts is present in approximately 80% of individuals (1).
Anatomical variants of aortic arch and its branching patterns often appear as an incidental finding during routine computed tomography (CT) scanning.
These variotions can be of relevance when performing angiography or endovascular interventions and may cause symptoms like dysphagia (2).
The purpose of this study was to...
Methods and Materials
Patients:
The reports of 1000 cases who were referred to our radiology department for thoracic CT with various indications over the preceding 16 months were retrospectively reviewed.
Remained 1000 patients aged from 2 to 84 years old were included the study.
373 were men,
627 were women of them.
We found 22 cases with vertebral artery outlet anomalies and 14 cases of them we used Doppler US examination.
CT Imaging Protocol:
Multi-slice CT (Aquillion 64,
Toshiba Tokyo,
Japonya) scan was performed on supine position using...
Results
Six types of aortic arch branching were found in this study.
In 792 cases (79.2%) classical branching pattern of arcus aorta (three branches; Turuncus Brachiocephalicus(TB),
Left Commen Carotid Artery (LCC),
Left Subclavian Artery (LS)) was observed.
The most frequent variation was origination of LCC from TB (arch with 2 branches,
TB with LCC and LS) which was observed in 167 cases (16.7%)( Fig 1).
Origination of Left Vertebral Artery (LV) directly from the aortic arch (four branches; TB,
LCC,
LV,
LS or TB,
LCC,
LS,...
Conclusion
During embryonic development,
six pairs of aortic arches connect the two primitive ventral
and dorsal aortas .
The ventral aorta becomes the ascending aorta,
the dorsal aorta
originates the descending thoracic aorta,
and the left fourth aortic arch forms the normal left
aortic arch.
The majority of the first,
second,
and fifth arches regress.
The third aortic arches form the carotid arteries .
The right fourth arch involutes; its persistence with regression of the left arch is associated with a right aortic arch,
and when...
References
1) G.C.
Jakanani ,
W.
Adair.Frequency of variations in aortic arch anatomy depicted on multidetector CT.Clinical Radiology 65 (2010) 481–487
2) Müller M,
Schmitz BL,
Pauls S,
Schick M,
Röhrer S,
Kapapa T,
Schlötzer W.
Variations of the aortic arch - a study on the most common branching patterns.Acta Radiol.
2011;52(7):738-42.
3) Eric T.
Kimura-Hayama, Gabriela Meléndez,
Ana L.
Mendizábal, Aloha Meave-González, Greby Fernando B.
Zambrana, Celia P.
Corona-Villalobos.
Uncommon Congenital and Acquired Aortic Diseases: Role of Multidetector CT Angiography.
RadioGraphics 2010; 30:79–98.
4) Afra...