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Vertebral artery variations and osseous anomaly at the C1-2 level diagnosed by 3D CT angiography in normal subjects

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
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A Letter to the Editor to this article was published on 31 October 2014

Abstract

Introduction

The craniovertebral junction is anatomically complicated. Representative vertebral artery (VA) variations include the persistent first intersegmental artery (FIA), fenestration of the VA above and below C1 (FEN), posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) from C1/2, and high-riding VA (HRVA). The ponticulus posticus (PP) is a well-known osseous anomaly at C1. Although those anomalies are frequent in patients with cervical deformity, the prevalence of these in subjects with normal cervical spines is still unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate the variations and prevalence of vascular and osseous anomalies based on three-dimensional computed tomographic (3D CT) angiography in patients without any cervical diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Klippel-Feil syndrome, or Down syndrome.

Methods

Eligible subjects were patients who underwent 3D CT angiography by the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Internal Medicine from January 2009 to October 2013 in our institution. The authors defined a HRVA as a C2 pedicle with a maximum diameter of 4 mm or less.

Results

Among 480 subjects with a mean age of 63.1 years, 387 patients were eligible. One hundred and eighteen subjects were female, and 269 were male. HRVA was observed in 10.1 % of patients (39 out of 387 cases), FIA in 1.8 % (7 cases), FEN in 1.3 % (5 cases), and PICA in 1.3 % (5 cases). PP was observed in 6.2 % of patients (24 cases).

Conclusion

According to past reports, many VA anomalies could be attributed to congenital or acquired conditions (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis). However, VA anomalies appear to exist even in patients without any such cervical diseases.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japan (2012).

Ethical standards and patient consent

We declare that all human and animal studies have been approved by the Institutional Review Board of Aichi Medical University and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We declare that all patients gave informed consent prior to inclusion in this study.

Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Correspondence to Norimitsu Wakao.

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Wakao, N., Takeuchi, M., Nishimura, M. et al. Vertebral artery variations and osseous anomaly at the C1-2 level diagnosed by 3D CT angiography in normal subjects. Neuroradiology 56, 843–849 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-014-1399-y

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