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An extremely short posterior communicating artery diagnosed by magnetic resonance angiography
1Department of Radiology, Saitama Sekishinkai Hospital, 2-37-20, Irumagawa Sayama, Saitama, 350-1305, Japan. auchino0528@gmail.com.
Purpose:
To describe a case of an extremely short posterior communicating artery (PCoA) incidentally diagnosed by magnetic resonance (MR) angiography.
Case Report:
A 48-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease underwent cranial MR imaging and MR angiography. MR imaging revealed no abnormality. After creating partial maximum-intensity-projection (MIP) images, MR angiography showed an extremely short right PCoA, only 4 mm long. The P1 segment of the right posterior cerebral artery (PCA) took an anterior course, and at the junction with the PCoA, the PCA made a hairpin turn and ran posteriorly. The length of the P1 segment was approximately 20 mm, which was relatively long.
Discussion:
According to an anatomical study using 170 cadaveric brains, the length of the PCoA ranged 5 to 26 mm (mean: 15 mm). Another 2 anatomical studies reported that the shortest PCoA was 7 mm. The present case had an extremely short right PCoA connecting with a hairpin turn at the P1-P2 junction, a unique configuration.
Conclusion:
To identify this variation by MR angiography, creation of partial MIP images was useful.
