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. 2020 Jan:133:e459-e472.
doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2019.09.047. Epub 2019 Sep 14.

Anatomical Study of Anterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery and Its Reciprocal Relationship with Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery Based on Angiographic Data

Kun Hou  1 , Guichen Li  2 , Tengfei Luan  1 , Kan Xu  1 , Baofeng Xu  1 , Jinlu Yu  3
Affiliations

Anatomical Study of Anterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery and Its Reciprocal Relationship with Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery Based on Angiographic Data

Kun Hou et al. World Neurosurg. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Anterior inferior cerebellar artery (AICA) can present with a myriad of variations. However, the previous studies of AICA anatomy were based on small-scale cadaveric investigation. In this study, we performed an angiographic study of AICA in 500 Chinese with Han nationality based on digital subtraction angiography (DSA).

Methods: Patients admitted to our institution between 2015 and 2018 who had underwent DSA were potential candidates for this retrospective evaluation. The exclusion criteria were: a) patients with vascular diseases of the posterior circulation; b) ischemic diseases or moyamoya disease of the anterior circulation.

Results: Five hundred patients were identified. The patients ranged in age from 6 to 75 years. Two hundred thirty-seven (62.9%, 237 of 377) patients had bilateral AICAs at the same level, and 140 (37.1%, 140 of 377) had bilateral AICAs at different levels. The developing states of AICA were grade 0 in 31 (3.5%, 31 of 896), grade 1 in 373 (41.6%, 373 of 896), grade 2 in 313 (34.9%, 313 of 896), and grade 3 in 179 (20.0%, 179 of 896) hemispheres. Two hundred twenty-one (22.1%, 221 of 1000) presented with AICA-PICA common trunks. Thirty-one (3.1%, 31 of 1000) hemispheres showed no obvious AICA angiographically. AICA arose as a single trunk in 865 (86.5%, 865 of 1000) hemispheres, and as duplicate trunks in 104 (10.4%, 10 of 1000) hemispheres. Triplicate or more trunks were not seen. AICA originating from the basilar artery fenestration accounted for 4% (20 of 500) of the cases.

Conclusions: This is the first attempt using DSA data to perform a large-scale investigation of AICA variations. The ever-growing need of endovascular intervention calls for more suitable anatomical explanation of the vascular structures.

Keywords: Anterior inferior cerebellar artery; Digital subtraction angiography; Posterior inferior cerebellar artery; Variation.

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