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Case Reports
. 2025 Jan 7;47(1):55.
doi: 10.1007/s00276-024-03556-x.

Accessory middle cerebral artery associated with an accessory anterior cerebral artery

Hideki Endo  1 , Hidetoshi Ono  2 , Hirohiko Nakamura  3
Affiliations
Case Reports

Accessory middle cerebral artery associated with an accessory anterior cerebral artery

Hideki Endo et al. Surg Radiol Anat. .

Abstract

Purpose: Although both accessory middle cerebral artery (MCA) and accessory anterior cerebral artery (ACA) are not rare anatomical variations, their combination is rare and there are only a limited number of reports of such combinations.

Methods: We report a case of accessory MCA associated with an accessory ACA diagnosed by magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).

Results: A 39-year-old woman visited our hospital because of right facial discomfort. She underwent 1.5-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging and MRA. MRA showed a left accessory MCA originating from the left ACA A1 segment. MRA also showed an accessory ACA that formed a triplicated ACA at its A2 segment.

Conclusion: Careful imaging assessment is important to identify multiple anatomical variations such as an accessory MCA associated with an accessory ACA. In our case, this rare anatomical variation was confirmed by 1.5-Tesla MRA.

Keywords: Accessory anterior cerebral artery; Accessory middle cerebral artery; Anatomical variation; Anterior cerebral artery; Magnetic resonance angiography; Middle cerebral artery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Nakamura Memorial Hospital (No. 2024103101). Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

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