[The study of clinical anatomy of lingual artery in physiological condition]

To provide the clinical anatomy data in physiological condition of the lingual artery in 64-slices spiral computed tomography angiography (CTA) for clinical treatment concerning the lingual artery.

CTA examination of the carotid artery were performed on 80 adult volunteers. The 3D reconstruction images of the carotid artery with hyoid bone were obtained by using 64-slices spiral CT and image postprocessing workstation. The origin, pathway, and anatomic relations of the lingual artery in CTA were studied. The distance from the origin of the lingual artery to the bifurcation of the common carotid artery and tip of the greater horn of hyoid bone were separately measured, and the distance between the segment of the greater horn of hyoid bone of lingual artery and the middle of greater horn of hyoid bone were also measured.

The pathway of the lingual artery had high variation, but the relative position between the segment of the greater horn of hyoid bone of lingual artery and the greater horn of hyoid bone were relatively constant. The lingual artery run forward approximately parallel to the greater horn of hyoid bone into tongue (2.32 +/- 1.29) mm in the superior to the greater horn of hyoid bone or (2.00 +/- 1.68) mm in the inferior to the greater horn of hyoid bone The distances from the origin of the lingual artery to the bifurcation of the common carotid artery and tip of the greater horn of hyoid bone were (12.93 +/- 7.36) mm and (10.40 +/- 5.75) mm separately.

The lingual artery could be clearly shown in CTA and the anatomy data in physiological condition of the lingual artery could be obtained by CTA. There was important instructive significance for clinical treatment concerning about the lingual artery.