Variant arteries at the base of the brain

Satheesha Nayak B

Abstract

Abnormalities of the important arteries at the base of brain can lead to serious clinical conditions like stroke or other functional deficits. We report here a variant pattern of arteries seen at the base of the brain. The left internal carotid artery was slightly larger than the right and it terminated by dividing into anterior and middle cerebral arteries. It gave an abnormally large posterior communicating artery, which was almost equal in size to that of the middle cerebral artery. This posterior communicating artery replaced the distal part of the left posterior cerebral artery. The proximal part of the left posterior cerebral artery was very small. There were two anterior communicating arteries. The left vertebral artery was larger than the right vertebral artery. The knowledge of these anomalous arteries may be useful for radiologists, neurosurgeons and clinicians in general.